


The Interrogation

by Athaia



Series: Planet of the Apes: Hunted [6]
Category: Planet of the Apes (TV)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fan Reboot, Gen, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Post-Apocalypse, Torture, episode based
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-01-22 03:08:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 7
Words: 49,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12472104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Athaia/pseuds/Athaia
Summary: When Burke gets caught by Urko’s troops, he is subjected to a new, experimental form of interrogation developed by a young, ambitious scientist. Now he must withstand both physical and psychological torture while his friends race to his rescue - a feat that is made infinitely more difficult because nobody knows where he is being held prisoner.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the script of Richard Collins
> 
> Many thanks to my fabulous beta Naynish!

Zana couldn’t say if she was getting slower with each day, or if the men were in an ever greater hurry, but the result was the same: she had trouble keeping up. Since Urko had attacked them in the ruined city, his lieutenant’s promise hung over their heads like the storm clouds rolling over the horizon, a towering, black menace threatening to bear down on them at any moment. And like the silence before the storm, the tension had choked their usual banter; they were taking abandoned roads outside the Zone now, heads down, hearts pounding, but never making much headway from dusk to dawn, or at least that was how it seemed to her. Zana would have felt as if caught in a bad dream, if her body hadn’t reminded her with constant aches and pains that this was all too real.

Like her feet. They weren’t covered with blisters anymore, like in the beginning, but they felt swollen and tender all the time now. _Everything_ felt swollen and tender, and she was always tired. And hungry, but mostly for things they neither had in their backpacks, nor were able to procure.

She could no longer hide from the fact that her body was changing to accommodate a baby. Even now, limping after her friends, Zana had to close her eyes for a moment at that thought. It was too early for her to show any outward signs yet, her belly flat as ever, and the presence of the humans kept Galen from getting close enough to her to notice the subtler changes, but _she_ knew - and she had no idea how to break the news to the others.

She stopped to catch her breath. „Peet!“

The human turned around, saw how much she had fallen behind - again - and jogged back to her. Farther ahead, Galen and Alan turned, too, their postures indicating impatience.

Or perhaps that was just her imagination, fueled by her guilty conscience.

Peet’s face didn’t show impatience, at least, only worry. „You okay, Zana? I’m sorry - it’s hard to keep up with those race horses.“

She smiled weakly at his joke - of all of them, Peet was closest to a race horse; this had to be like an evening stroll to him. „I just...“ her eyes fell on the little shrine at the side of the road.

„I haven’t had an opportunity to make an offering to my parents ever since we had to run from the city.“ She gestured towards the stone column. Peet’s gaze wandered to the shrine, then flicked back to her; his expression told her that he didn’t believe for a moment that she had suddenly been overcome by filial piety, but the worry in his eyes only deepened.

„Yeah, sure, you do your thing.“ He waved in the shrine’s general direction. „I’ll wait.“ He retreated a few steps to give her privacy.

Zana shrugged off her backpack and bent down to retrieve the smudge sticks she had carried around the whole time - a farewell present from Lora; then she kept rummaging a bit longer than necessary, until the tears of shame were no longer pricking in the corners of her eyes. She selected three sticks, lit them, extinguished the flames, and waited a moment for the smoke to gather around her. The sweet, balsamic scent engulfed her like a soothing breeze; her shoulders relaxed in response to the familiar fragrance. Her breathing eased.

She would get through this.

Behind her, she heard Peet shifting on his feet, but when she glanced at him, she only saw curiosity in his eyes. She sent him a quick, apologetic smile. „I’ll be finished in a moment.“

Encouraged by her reaction, Peet came to her side. „So you have...“ he made a show out of counting, „three parents?“

Zana’s smile softened. „Some people also burn offerings for beloved mentors, or great teachers of their professional line. I like to burn one for the human that carried me out of our burning house when I was a baby. I wouldn’t be here without him or her.“ She didn’t add that most apes would have seen this as blasphemy; maybe Peet suspected as much, anyway.

She bowed before the shrine, the smudge sticks between her palms. When she straightened, she caught Peet’s gaze. He looked taken aback, but pleased.

„You were rescued by a human? Huh. What happened to him... or her?“

Zana sighed. „I never found out, although I searched for a long time.“ She began to fit the smoldering bundles into their holders. „Do you honor your ancestors?“

Peet shrugged. „Sure, people visit the graves...“

„No, I mean _you_ , Peet. Don’t you acknowledge them somehow?“

He raked his hand through his hair, a sign that he felt uncomfortable. „My dad and I weren’t even speaking with each other while he was alive. I wouldn’t know what to talk about with him _now.“_

„And your mother? Or is she still alive?“ She had no idea why she was asking him all these things... maybe to distract him from the fact that she was still breathing too fast. When he didn’t answer, her uneasiness deepened. She probably had violated some cultural taboo. He didn’t return her questioning look, his face suddenly shuttered.

„At first, it hurt too much,“ he finally admitted. So his mother had died, too. „And then I was too busy with... stuff, and now...“

„Now you have put her into a box and sealed it.“ Zana nodded. „Sometimes that’s how I feel when I light a prayer stick for my parents.“ She turned towards the shrine once more. „I don’t remember them, I was too young - and sometimes this feels like going through the motions. But afterwards, I always feel better; more at peace.“

Inspiration struck her; she took one of the unlit sticks and held it out to Peet. He took a step back, startled, his face showing the shock at that gesture that she felt inside.

„Sorry, I... that’s a nice thought of you, Zana, but...“ he shook his head, „that’s not for me. I’m not the religious type at all.“

She let her hand fall to her side, trying not to feel rebuffed. „That’s alright, Peet. No need to apologize.“ She quickly put the rest of the bundle away and shouldered her backpack. At least she had recovered a bit, enough to feel up for another couple of miles of alternate jogging and walking.

They had almost caught up to Alan and Galen, when Peet suddenly whipped his head around to stare at the bend in the road behind them. He tensed, a moment before she heard it, too:

Hoofbeats on the road. Several riders, going at a trot...

Peet gave her a hard push, and she stumbled off the road and into the bushes. Ahead of her, the others were already running through the undergrowth, trying to get under the trees and hide. Zana fell into a run, too, but her feet seemed to be made of lead, and she was moving too slow... so slow! Her breath was loud in her ears, panicked and laboured, and the riders had to be coming round the bend any moment now-

A shout from the road - they had been seen. Fear snapped through her, but instead of energizing her, it drained all strength from her legs. Her fingertips were prickling, her arms felt like water. Alan and Galen had already vanished into the shadows under the trees, and Peet had reached the treeline, too. She was still stumbling down the slope. Behind her, she heard twigs rustle and snap as the first rider spurred his horse after them.

Peet turned around and raced back to her.

He was at her side in a moment, his face white and tense. „I’ll distract them. Move!“ he hissed. He bent down to pick up a stone.

Zana stared at him for a moment. What was he going to do? Hurl rocks at soldiers who had guns? That was suici-

_„Move!“_

Her paralysis suddenly lifted, and she ran down the slope towards the trees. Behind her, a horse whinnied, and when she threw a hasty glance back over her shoulder, it had thrown off its rider. Peet was racing away, parallel to the road now instead of down the slope, and the rest of the patrol took off after him, enraged by his attack on their comrade. Two of them were unfolding a net between them. Zana ducked behind a trunk and watched, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene.

Peet had now changed direction and was racing towards the trees in huge strides, and for a moment, Zana entertained the wild hope that he’d be able to outrun the horses at this short distance. The ground was treacherous under the dense foliage of the bushes, and the horses were unwilling to run at full speed, and Peet was their best runner...

A third chimp was whirling a net over his head. Zana watched, hypnotized, as the net unfolded and hovered in the air. Then it landed on top of Peet, ensnaring his legs. The riders surrounded him at once, bearing down on him like a pack of wolves. Zana couldn’t see him anymore, only a mass of horses, and the black uniforms of the soldiers. They jerked back suddenly, and Zana thought she had caught a glimpse of Peet, slamming into one of them, but then another soldier raised his fist and brought it down, and the struggle stopped.

_No, no, no!_

Zana sank down into the underbrush behind her tree, too horrified for tears. She felt as if a huge hand had clamped around her ribcage; it hurt to even breathe. The soldiers dragged Peet upright and threw him across the back of their leader’s horse. His head was lolling, that soldier’s fist had knocked him unconscious. The patrol leader let his hand rest on his back as if Peet was a dead deer he’d shot, and took up the reins with his other hand.

_Now they’ll come for us..._

But she didn’t move. She couldn’t. She’d be watching their search, frozen like a rabbit, until one of them would stumble over her and truss her up just like they had done with Peet.

_Oh Peet. If I hadn’t been so slow... this was my fault. My fault._

But the patrol leader just scanned the treeline with a cool glance before he turned his horse back towards the road. „Alert the local police to search the area for the rest. We’ll cash in our reward for this one,“ Zana heard him say. He gave Peet’s back a satisfied slap. „Urko will be pleased.“

They vanished as quickly as they had appeared. Zana hurried over to where the soldiers had wrestled with Peet.

His backpack lay there, the strap torn. A few steps further, the little wooden horse head that he wore as a pendant around his neck. She bent to pick it up.

Then the tears did come.

* * *

Zana didn’t react when Galen fell down beside her and pulled her into his arms. She was kneeling in the grass, hands clenched into fists, sobbing silently. When Alan caught up to them, Zana opened her hand and showed him Peet’s pendant.

„It was my fault, Alan - I was too slow and he fell back and drew them to himself. It was my fault...“ She buried her head in Galen’s neck. Alan said nothing, his face unreadable; his gaze wandered over Peet’s belongings that had partly poured out of his torn backpack.

„What will they do to him now?“ Galen regretted his words as soon as they had left his mouth. Zana shuddered in his arms.

„I don’t want to imagine what Urko will do to Peet,“ she whispered. „His death is on my hands...“

„They’ll interrogate him before they kill him,“ Alan murmured. „They’ll want to know the names of whoever helped us to evade Urko for so long.“

Galen closed his eyes for a moment, as a long line of faces appeared before his mind’s eye. Polar and his sons... little Remo... He swallowed. He didn’t want to imagine what Urko would do to a child. Lora, Dolan, even Aken could fall victim to Urko’s vengefulness. Not to mention the many humans that had helped them, given them food, directions, warnings about patrols and hints which paths were less controlled...

Zana had followed the same train of thoughts, apparently. „But he won’t tell... would he?“ she asked timidly.

Alan’s face was grim. „Not for a while. But everyone breaks eventually. Unless...“

„Unless what?“

The men exchanged a look of complete understanding. „Unless Peet can provoke Urko into killing him before that point,“ Galen said softly.

„We have to do something!“ Zana broke away from him and bolted to her feet. „We can’t just sit here and wait for the police they sent for to come and collect us...“

Galen rose, too, alarmed. „The soldiers sent for police?“ He turned to Alan. „Then we need to leave at once! They could be here any moment!“

„Haven’t you heard what I just said?“ Zana snapped. „We must help Peet!“

„But how? We’ll never catch up with them on foot!“ Much as he wanted to help the human, Galen had no taste for sacrificing himself as a noble, but ineffective gesture.

„I... I don’t know!“ Zana threw her hands up, frustrated. „We have to think of something!“ She turned to Alan. „Don’t you want to help Peet?“

Alan regarded her with a strange expression. Galen felt a funny knot building in his stomach as he watched the human’s face.

Fear.

„You said they sent police after us?“

*

Galen wrapped the rope around his hands, because by now his palms were so sweaty that he feared it would slip through his fingers, and if that happened, Zana would be doomed. His nose twitched violently at that thought.

Zana was standing at the side of the road, a small figure under a dark sky. Birds and insects had fallen silent, and the air was heavy and unmoving. Galen strained his ears for the sound of hoofbeats, but nothing so far. Only a humming silence, thick with anticipation.

Then Zana turned and ran.

A moment later, he caught it, too - the rapid clatter of a patrol racing down the road, hurrying to catch the prey before it retreated too deeply into the wilderness.

They had seen her now - Galen held his breath as they spurred on their horses to run even faster, the first one already leaving the road to cut her off. Zana was more stumbling than running... she had been slower lately than in the beginning of their journey, Galen remembered, and always complained about being tired. What if she was too slow?

 _I should have been the bait,_ Galen thought desperately, _and she should have lain in wait with the rope. Too late now..._

She was racing towards him; Galen could see her wide, dark eyes, her open mouth, her pumping fists with painful clarity. Her breath came in wheezing gasps, twigs snapped with loud cracks under her feet. _Just a bit closer, don’t slow down now, Zana, run faster, faster..._ She was falling on all four now, using her arms to make up for her failing legs.

Then she passed him, two riders immediately behind her, their net already stretched between them. Galen jumped down from his branch, pulling at the rope that was fastened to a trunk on the other side of their path. If his timing was off just by a fraction of a-

A violent jerk as the soldiers ran at top speed into the taut rope smashed him against the trunk of his tree. Apparently his timing had been just fine. He came to his feet and winced as a shot thundered a few feet away from him. Then a ratcheting sound. He cautiously peeked around the tree.

Alan had taken cover behind another tree, but the two soldiers they had just thrown off their mounts were sitting ducks, and they knew it: they stood on the path with sullen looks on their faces, hands in the air. The rest of the patrol had brought their horses to a halt, unsure what to do.

„I’m pointing your rifle at a head,“ Galen heard Alan’s calm voice. „I’m not telling you which head. If you do as I say, nobody needs to die today. Everyone dismount. Hands where I can see them.“

„It’s the human!“ one of the officers said, incredulous. He had to be as shocked as if his horse had suddenly pulled a gun on him, Galen mused. And if Alan had been one of this world’s humans, he’d probably never even have thought of such a thing, let alone been able to carry it out.

But he wasn’t one of their humans. Galen thought that Alan and Peet might be this world’s only genuinely wild humans. Not even strays sought out open confrontation with an ape anymore.

„Be a good boy and put that thing down before you hurt yourself,“ the patrol leader called into the shadows beneath the trees.

„Be a reasonable ape and don’t push it,“ Alan called back. „Dismount before I make up my mind who I’ll shoot.“

„You’re not going to shoot us,“ the leader retorted while his men flicked nervous glances towards the area where the human was hiding.

„Try me.“ The flatness in Alan’s voice made Galen’s fur rise.

It did seem to drive the message home to the chimps, too, because the first man dismounted, then the next, slowly, until finally, their leader followed suit. Perhaps it had dawned on him that being the only one still defying the armed human could turn him into the designated target.

„Step away from the horses, line up against the trees. One ape per trunk,“ Alan ordered. „Zana, collect the horses before they run off. Galen, tie these gentlemen to their trees.“

„Since when does an ape obey the orders of a human?“ the first ape hissed when Galen tied his hands behind the trunk. „Are you out of your mind?“

„That is a strange question coming from an ape who wanted to bring me home for hanging,“ Galen remarked and pulled the last knot tight.

„I’m an officer of the law!“ the ape called after him when Galen moved to the next ape. „I’m just doing my duty.“

„Good for you, officer,“ Galen said cheerfully, „I, on the other hand, am doing this here for purely selfish reasons.“ He sniffed. „I like my neck.“

„We can’t just leave them here,“ Zana said, worried. Galen had to admire her character for caring about men who had been out to deliver them to the same fate as Peet’s. „They’ll starve to death, or wild animals...“

„Their comrades will go looking for them soon enough when they don’t return to the watch house,“ Alan cut her off. He had already mounted his horse and sat there with an ease that Galen had never seen in another human. Even Peet had complained about having to sit on a horse. On this world, humans didn’t ride horses.

But Alan wasn’t from this world. The longer Galen traveled with him, the more obvious it became.

He shook his head and reached for the pommel of his own horse. They had acquired five of them, so they could change the animals around before they were exhausted, which would help them to stay in hot pursuit of the patrol that had Peet - _they_ would be exchanging horses at every waystation, and probably not rest at all until they had reached the city. Galen didn’t know if Zana could take such a hard ride, and he wasn’t exactly looking forward to it himself. But a look at Alan’s stony face told him that the human wouldn’t accommodate either of them.

„What are you doing? Don’t put additional weight on the horse if it isn’t necessary.“ Alan’s voice wasn’t harsh, but all his usual warmth was drained from it. Zana’s shoulders tensed, but she didn’t drop Peet’s backpack as she climbed into the saddle herself.

„Those are Peet’s things,“ she said, a hint of defiance in her voice. „And I’ll give them back to him after we saved him.“

Alan stared at her for a moment. Then he nodded. „You do that.“

Thunder rolled when they steered their horses back to the road.

* * *

Urko didn’t know whether to laugh or growl when he saw Zaius’ newest acquisition hover at his desk, but he was in too high mood to let the old fool’s taste in women exasperate him today. So he just closed the door a bit more forcefully than necessary.

„What is it with you and young, nubile Chimps?“

Zaius looked up from the scroll the girl was holding under his nose and gave him a crooked smile. „Do come in, Urko.“ The Chimp hastily rolled up her scroll and retreated into the shadow of one of the council eldest’s beloved potted ferns.

Urko accepted the flint and steel that Zaius offered him and lowered himself into a seat. He didn’t bother to hide his satisfied smile as he stuffed his pipe. „You heard the news.“

„Burke has been captured.“ Zaius leaned back and took a long draw on his pipe.

„Yes.“ Urko lit his pipe and took a long draw himself. He smiled at the Orangutan through the smoke. „Just as I promised you.“

Zaius didn’t look impressed. „One out of four. The others are still at large.“

Urko grinned and stretched his legs. „Worried about your book? They’ll come to me, no worries - they’ll try to free their friend.“ He chuckled. „Fools.“

„Their loyalty is amazing,“ Zaius said mildly, and Urko frowned. The old man was alluding to his latest report about the incident in the ruined human city - where the humans had tricked his lieutenant into letting them run free in exchange for saving him... though Urko was under no illusions that they’d have been interested in his fate if the other human hadn’t been trapped underground with him.

He should’ve killed Virdon then, while he had the chance.

„Well,“ Zaius said briskly, „his capture couldn’t have come at a better time. We have an experiment-“

„Experiment?“ He should’ve known that the Orangutan would needlessly complicate things. „We don’t need no ‘experiments’. We’ll simply flay that creature in the main place to get our message across. No more alien humans, no more problems.“ No more dangerous ideas. But there was no need to let Zaius know what _he_ knew by now. Let them think that the dumb Gorilla was just hating the human’s guts.

Zaius’ eyes were cold. „They’ve been on the run for more than a month now. Clearly they had help. Don’t you think it’s important to know who helped them? Who they talked to?“

Urko grunted noncommittally.

„I can almost guarantee you I’ll get those answers.“

Urko turned slowly to stare at the fern that had dared to speak up. „Who’s that?“ he growled.

The Chimp shriveled under his glare.

Zaius waved the girl to come closer. „This is Vanda. One of our brightest young scientists-“

Urko snorted. „May I remind you of the clusterfuck that your last ‘bright young scientist’ produced? Maybe you should give up on them young Chimp wimmin’...“

The girl straightened, clearly annoyed. „I assure you I don’t suffer from Zana’s... sentimental afflictions. I have no special love for humans.“ She smiled cheekily. „I’m more a horse girl myself.“

„Fascinating,“ Urko muttered.

„You shouldn’t be so dismissive of young Vanda,“ Zaius said dryly. „She’s one of _your_ people - she works for the Cesarian Intelligence Agency. Her topic of research is interrogation techniques. Surely you’ve read her latest papers.“

He hadn’t. He was a soldier, and although he was technically also the head of the armed forces’ intelligence, he preferred to ignore the secret police. Their work was political, as far as Urko was concerned, and as such, was Zaius’ domain. He glared at Zaius, who smiled thinly in response.

„So what does that experiment have to do with Burke?“ Urko said gruffly. Vanda stepped closer, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

„An old human technique...“

„Human?“ Urko leaned forward. „Is ape now imitating man?“ He turned to Zaius. „Shouldn’t that be considered blasphemy, oh venerable Defender of the Faith?“

„They did it to each other, and with great success,“ Vanda said, undaunted by his sarcasm. „Burke is a human, so why wouldn’t I experiment with methods tailored to his species’ weaknesses? What we’re going to do to Burke was called ‘brainwashing’ by the humans of old...“

„Brain washing,“ Urko repeated flatly.

„Yes. The psychological method of washing out of the human brain old ideas and inserting new ones. We’re going to do that with Burke - it’ll be my next paper.“ Vanda beamed at him. „We’ll get you your answers and promote scientific progress at the same time.“

„Ah. Brain washing. Now I remember,“ Urko deadpanned. „Isn’t that where the brain is removed from the skull and then rinsed thoroughly with cool water until the grey disappears?“

Vanda frowned, annoyed. „No. No. The brain is not removed from the skull!“

„Ah, yes, you’re right.“ Urko fought to keep the amusement out of his voice. „I must’ve confused it with the baked calf brain that you Chimps love so much. That’s where you also remove all those veins...“

„Vanda has the backing of the council,“ Zaius cut him short. „She’ll interrogate Burke according to this new procedure.“

The tension under his amusement flared into rage. „All interrogation is strictly under my supervision. That is _the law,_ Zaius!“

„You may supervise, but Vanda will control the experiment.“ Zaius didn’t even raise his voice. Urko felt his lips peel back over his teeth despite his attempt to control his anger.

Vanda quickly stepped between them. „I’d be pleased if you’d participate in the experiment, General - in fact, you’d be indispensable.“

Urko flared his nostrils, taking deep breaths to tamp down his fury. „How?“

„I’ve been told that you prefer a more... hands-on approach to interrogation,“ Vanda said. „That could offer a useful contrast to the subtler methods I will employ. In short, the more fearsome you appear to the captive, the more benign I will seem to him - and that will make him more willing to open up to me.“

Urko regarded her with narrowed eyes. „You want me to roughen him up?“

Vanda nodded. „Within limits. You can’t cause permanent or debilitating damage, as that would make him useless to me, but otherwise feel free to be creative in how you put pressure on him.“

Urko pursed his lips as he considered her offer. He’d be close by, and if she took too long without delivering results... well, accidents could happen, right?

On the other hand, he had to assert his authority. He wouldn’t sneak in an execution if he could _demand_ one. „How long until you get results?“

Vanda shrugged. „We don’t have that data yet, obviously, but our sources speak of no more than four or five days.“

He nodded. „You have five days, then. After that, he’ll be lobotomized. That procedure also makes them docile and cooperative-“

„Or turns them into vegetables,“ Vanda pointed out.

Urko spread his arms and smiled. „In either event, we won’t have to worry about him anymore.“ He glanced to Zaius. „I strongly advise the council to follow my suggestion, Eldest. It would be too bad if another failed experiment of yours raised doubts about your judgment.“

Zaius gave him a sour look. „What you suggest is our last resort.“ But he turned to the young scientist.

„You have five days and five nights. After that, Urko will take over.“

* * *

The bag over his head made it impossible to take a deep breath, and it stank. Burke didn’t know if he’d rather hold his breath or suck in whatever oxygen made it through the thick fabric, and settled for intermittent shallow breaths that made him dizzy and nauseous. He was too busy fighting against the blackout hovering at the edges of his vision to care where he was dragged and shoved to, but he did notice that the air against his chest was suddenly much cooler, and that the sound of his captor’s boots was louder and had a certain echo.

They had entered some underground construction - a tunnel or something.

_Their secret dungeon. Ain’t that great? I’ll never get out of here again._

The last thought had sneaked in before he had a chance to suppress it. He had been pretty good at staying away from this sort of defeatism for the last days, but then he had been thrown over a horse like a sack of potatoes - a _galloping_ horse. That kind of thing did help to keep you distracted.

Burke sucked in another mouthful of hot, lint-saturated air and fought against the instinct to overbreathe. The bag was meant to disorient him as much as torture him with the threat of asphyxiation, and he’d be damned if he’d play into his captors’ hands by reacting mindlessly to their triggers.

The problem was... the problem was, he was already tired. And sore from that damn horse. And thirsty. And hungry, but the thirst was the bigger problem. All done deliberately to him to put him under stress, soften him up. Too bad that the knowledge didn’t do one bit to relieve any of those sensations. Burke began to sort through them, trying to put them out of his awareness one by one. Dried sweat and dust making him itch all over - _Done and gone_. Nausea from slowly suffocating under that damn-

The bag was ripped off and he gasped for air. Blessed, fresh, cool, moist air. Burke blinked watery eyes against the bright light blinding him after the enforced darkness under the bag. The room he was in looked like a bomb shelter, and for a moment he wondered if the apes had a penchant for repurposing old human sites. Gas lamps were lined up along the walls in such a way that their cold light threw no shadows. He was getting dizzy from hyperventilating, but he just couldn’t help it after almost suffocating under his hood.

He had been positioned in front of a dark, wooden desk; its surface was bare save for a thick folder, and a tray with a pitcher of water and a glass. Burke swallowed involuntarily at the sight; his tongue was sticking to the roof of his mouth. He couldn’t remember when the guards had given him something to drink the last time.

He sniffed and tore his gaze away from the water.

_I know how this works, you fucking monkeys. We invented this stuff when you were still figuring out how to peel a banana._

„Thank you guard - you can return to your post.“

Burke half turned to see who had entered the room behind them, and flinched. The young woman who had dismissed his warden was... a chimp. She wore a white lab coat, though; and glasses.

She didn’t look at all like Zana.

The chimp rounded him with a slight smile and an open, curious expression; she gave him an unabashed once over that he’d have teased Zana for, but the eyes of this one were cold.

Clinical.

She sat down behind the desk and gestured to the chair in front of him. „Please, sit down, Burke.“

Slowly, he sank into the chair, keeping his eyes on the ape, who continued to smile at him. „Allow me to introduce myself: I am Vanda, and I’m assigned to be your interrogation officer.“

_Hello - I’m Zana, and I will be taking care of you from now on._

Burke shook his head to get rid of that memory; he only half-listened to the chimp woman’s next words. „Let me explain what the procedure will be- oh, but have a glass of water first! I can see that you’re thirsty, and I wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable.“

_Yeah, right._

But he did accept the water. Get your relief when the opportunity presents itself, right? And she hadn’t asked him anything yet. The water was cool and, and... just good. Wonderful. He sighed and put the glass back on the table. Vanda watched him with that slight smile that never left her face.

„That’s better, isn’t it? I’m sorry you had such a rough journey here, but your captors are General Urko’s men and they have been bred after his example.“ She leaned forward and refilled his glass; Burke took it without being prompted and emptied it in one draw. A moment later it occurred to him that the water could have been drugged, but he hadn’t smelled or tasted anything...

Didn’t mean anything. They could have drugs in their possession that were completely neutral.

Too late now.

„I hope you don’t hold their treatment of you against me,“ Vanda said. „Believe me, if you had been under my supervision from the beginning, I’d have made sure that you’d have been fed and transported strictly after regulations. Tell you what.“ She smiled sweetly at him. „I’ll give you a written permission to take a daily bath if you’ll promise me not to blame me for your sores and bumps from the transfer.“

„’m not blaming you for them anyways.“ His voice was rough; he hadn’t spoken since that monkey had knocked his lights out in the woods. He wondered how far away that place was from here - had they raced back all the way to the apes’ city?

Vanda beamed. „I’m so relieved! I wouldn’t have wanted for us to start on the wrong foot! Now,“ she opened the folder and took out a piece of greenish paper - or what they used for paper here, „our bureaucrats want to know all kinds of things, nothing important, you see, just lots of blank lines I have to fill so that _they_ can feel important, I’m sure.“

„Sorry, but my mom taught me not to talk to strangers.“ It was a weak quip, but he wasn’t relaxed enough to come up with something more original. He didn’t buy the woman’s chit chat for a second.

„Oh.“ Vanda froze for a moment, pen in mid-air. Then she put it down with exaggerated care. She laced her fingers on the paper before her and leaned forward, giving him a sympathetic smile.

„I understand - you want to protect your friends. But be reasonable.“ She glanced down at the form. „They want to know your age, whether you are in good health, when and where you were taken prisoner - do you really think answering those silly questions would be telling me anything worthwhile? Or that I’d ask you to spill any secrets in exchange for a _bath?_

„Now _Urko_ is convinced that you and your friends have been roaming the countryside, inciting rebellion in your fellow humans - and probably had a Gorilla baby for breakfast every day - but I know you did nothing of the kind.“ Her smile became a bit more vicious. „Because if you had, I can assure you that our intelligence would’ve known even before you.“

Burke’s heart had begun to race at the mentioning of the gorilla’s name, but he carefully kept his face blank. „So if you already know that, why ‘m I here?“

Vanda sighed, shrugged, and leaned back in her chair. „I have to make sure that you are, indeed, no danger to our society, you see? It’s my job. All I want from you is a tiny bit of cooperation so I can fill out these lines on this form. I must convince my superiors that your unauthorized vacation to the countryside didn’t do any damage to our humans, and then you’ll go back to the institute to live out your days in peace. I heard they are building a new and bigger open-air enclosure, with more stimuli for an enhanced experience. Humans get bored so easily and then they’re up to all kinds of shenanigans.“

Vanda’s eyes were sparkling with amusement. Burke had seen the same light glowing in the eyes of another ape, not too long ago.

Urko’s.

„The sooner you tell me what I need to know, the less time you have to spend here,“ Vanda said.

„Oh, I like it here.“ Burke smiled and poured himself another glass of water. He toasted her. „You’re a very nice lady. And I’m afraid I can’t help you with your forms.“

Vanda’s smile didn’t waver. „Very well,“ she said softly. „I’m looking forward to spending more time with you, too. I think it will be a very interesting experience.

„For both of us.“

The hood was pulled down over his head again.

* * *

 

Night had not yet melted into dawn when Virdon returned from the village, fresh horses in tow; the meadows were plated silver in the weak light of the waning moon, heavy with dew. He tiredly thought that he was getting all too acquainted with the hour of the wolf.

They had to ride by night - while two apes on horseback wouldn’t have raised a brow, a _human_ on a horse would’ve immediately attracted a mob. As a result, they had to hide by day, a necessity that was driving him crazy. While Galen and Zana hit their bedrolls as soon as they had eaten, Virdon - invariably volunteering for first watch - was prowling the perimeter, unable to sit still for a minute. Speeds, times, distances were relentlessly ticking in his mind. Pete’s captors weren’t fettered by his own group’s constraints: they could exchange the horses at every way station, and exchange the riders, too. They would be headed straight back to the apes’ central city, to Urko.

Virdon’s hands stilled at the knot he was tying to keep the last horse from wandering into the forest surrounding their hiding spot; for a moment he could feel Pete racing away from him, like a moving dot on the map hovering before his mind’s eye, a tiny, fierce flame of life and defiance pulling at some undefined line of connection to him.

 _Please give him strength,_ he prayed, _give him hope. He must know that we won't abandon him._

He jerked the knot tight and absently patted the horse’s neck before he made his way to the campfire. At least Galen had mastered the art of making a smokeless fire by now; he had even taken the time to dig a small hole that would conceal the glow of the flames. At other times, Virdon would’ve made some approving noise, but now he just hunkered down and silently accepted the cup of hot broth that Zana handed him.

„How did it go?“ Galen asked, nodding towards the horses.

„Smoothly.“ Nobody had batted an eye when he had led their exhausted mounts through the village - he was just another slave, barefoot and docile, gaze downcast. It hadn’t been difficult to take on the body language of defeat... it was exactly how he felt as soon as they were forced to interrupt their pursuit. Every dawn was another punch this world delivered to him, another reminder that he belonged to the conquered race.

„The officers didn’t hear you leading them away?“ Galen pressed on, and Virdon frowned. He might not be a professional horse thief, but did Galen really think he’d jeopardize Pete’s rescue by being sloppy?

„I kept the rest of the herd occupied with a sack of carrots I... found.“ He hadn’t just turned into a thief of _horses;_ what a career jump for Colonel Alan Virdon, former Air Force pilot, former spaceship commander...

Zana blew an amused sniff. „Peet would’ve bowled over laughing if he’d seen you with a sack of carrots on your back - remember how he’d laughed when I bought you that straw hat?“

Virdon’s lips twitched; oh yes, he could imagine the reaction. _Damn, Al, I didn’t know you’d play Santa for the beasties, too!_

He closed his eyes for a second and forced himself to focus on the heat of the cup in his hands, the blaring of bird calls from the trees, and the pressure of a piece of gravel boring into his backside. He took another sip from his broth.

They were on their way back to the city. Back to square one. All the miles of cobblestone, deer trail, underbrush, and grassland they had traversed, all the dangers and struggles, the slave work on Polar’s farm, the mad race to snatch him away from Aken’s execution platform at the very last second... and they were not a single step closer to safety. On the contrary - he was leading the rest of their group straight back to Urko’s home base.

 _I lost Pete, and now I’m endangering Zana and Galen._ But he couldn’t turn his back on his friend, he just... He knew about „enhanced interrogation,“ and during the war, his comrades had gladly filled him in on the gruesome details, one story about someone who knew someone who had fallen into the hands of the Chinese more gory than the next. It had all been a game of who could keep a straight face then.

 _I’m emotionally compromised. I’m not fit to lead._ But who’d be able to take the reins? Zana was even more determined to wrest Pete from Urko’s clutches than himself, and she could be as reckless as Burke...

Galen was cautious, and his attitude towards them was friendly, but detached. He wanted to bring his fiancée out of the danger zone, without detours to explore ancient ruins, or mad plans to rescue someone who was probably beyond help by now...

Virdon swallowed. Galen had his priorities straight. He’d-

„Here, Alan, you mustn’t forget your medicine.“ Another cup appeared inches from his nose, tickling him with the scent of licorice and something tart. He looked up and into Zana’s worried eyes and forced a weak smile on his lips.

„Thanks, Zana.“ The tea didn’t taste too bad, and it did ease the pain in his chest and the coughing bouts that had plagued him ever since they had pulled him out of the ruins of the subway station. He didn’t want to calculate how much dust and toxic fumes he had inhaled down there, or speculate about the long-term damage his lungs had suffered. He took another sip from the tea - it was the only help this world had to offer him.

Not „this world.“ This _time._ His thoughts lingered against his will on the memory of that subway station. On the flyer he had found down there. The name of the station. Latin letters, English words - and the date of the last Olympic games.

Had those been the last Olympics they’d ever held? What had _happened_ after that year?

It was his own world, _his own world!_ Everything after his rescue had been a frantic race, first away from Urko, now after him, and he hadn’t ever had a quiet moment to truly grasp the reality of what he had found down there. But now it snaked around him, squeezing the breath from his throat.

_Sal..._

She was dead. She was... she was gone, maybe for centuries, maybe even longer. Everything had crumbled away, vanished from the face of the Earth he’d known. Even these ruins they were hiding in now had been some temple for the apes, not humans. Sally’s body had turned to dust, her smile, the sparkle in her eyes, the scent of her skin...

Dust in his throat and in his eyes, making them water.

There was a baby daughter he had never seen. She had been born, grown up, died, like a flame lighting up in the darkness and winking out again. Had she found love? Had she found purpose?

 _My son_ and now he had to put the cup down and press the heels of his hands against his eyes to rub the wetness away. _I wanted to come back to you, Chris, so much... I didn’t know, I couldn’t know, how could I’ve known..._

He felt a warm hand on the nape of his neck, and then Zana put her arm around his shoulders and gave him a gentle squeeze. „We’ll get there in time, Alan, don’t you worry. We’ll find Peet and get him out of there. He’s strong, and he knows we won’t abandon him. He’ll be alright, you’ll see.“

 _No, he won’t be alright,_ but there was no use telling her that.

Virdon awkwardly cleared his throat and put one hand over Zana’s. He had to get a grip on himself. He needed... he needed something to distract him. His eyes fell on Galen, who was studiously staring down at the pages of his book, trying to give him privacy.

That book. Virdon had sometimes wondered just what about that book was so damning that Galen had to flee for his life just for keeping it.

He sniffed and rubbed a hand over his face. „What are you reading there, Galen? I’ve been meaning to ask you for some time...“

Galen slowly lifted his head and gave him a long, unreadable look, and Virdon felt irritation starting to simmer in his gut at the chimp’s hesitation. Zana’s fiancé had never made a secret of his fascination with „Zana’s humans,“ as he insisted on calling them, but the glances thrown their way when he thought they wouldn’t notice were cautious at best, and wary most of the time. Pete and he were defying the ape’s assumptions of human potential in ways Virdon couldn’t even know.

That didn’t keep Galen from pelting them with questions about their world every day, and Virdon had answered them all as truthfully as he felt was reasonable. And now Galen was weighing his trustworthiness?

But then Galen did answer. „It’s a history book,“ he said slowly. „About a, a part of history that Zaius absolutely wants to keep secret from ape society.“ His fingers brushed lightly over the page, as if he meant to touch the events described in the patchy script. Pete had called it „paw prints“-

Virdon forced his thoughts back to the present.

„What part would that be? - Come on, Galen, you’re hammering me with questions about my world all day, every day. You can’t blame me for being curious about your world in return.“ As far as Galen and Zana knew, he and Pete had come from another world among the stars, a strange upside-down version of reality where humans had built a civilization. He didn't intend to change that assumption - not after he had suffered Urko’s reaction to the truth of apekind’s status at that long gone time.

Galen sighed and scratched his chin, clearly struggling with whatever misgivings he had about them, and Virdon reached for his tea to give his hands something else to do than clenching into fists.

„It deals with a war between apekind and... and humans,“ Galen said finally.

„Oh,“ Virdon deadpanned, „who won?“

Galen shot him a withering look. „You should leave the joking to Peet, he’s more funny while doing it.“

Virdon inhaled deeply and took another sip from his tea. His irritation was wavering around the edges of his control, a slight, steady tremor in his chest. It was because he was so frustrated with their situation, he told himself, it wasn’t fair to unload his bad mood on Galen. He sent him a rueful smile. „I’m sorry, Galen. I didn’t mean... what were they fighting over?“

Galen shrugged. „Dominance. Resources. The question of which of them were persons, and which... weren’t.“ His gaze dropped to the pages again. „The book claims that apes... that apes hadn’t been persons before.“

Virdon’s breath stilled in his throat. „Before what?“ he whispered.

Zana shook out her bedroll with a huff. „What does it _matter?“_ she snapped. „That was hundreds of years ago! Peet is in danger _now,_ and all you two can think of is chatting over an old book?“ She threw the blankets into the grass and turned to them, arms akimbo. „I’ve read all the reports from the Strays’ Rebellion, you know? Urko was just a lieutenant then, but... do you know what they called him back then? What the _apes_ called him? ‘Belly-buster’... because he’d force the humans to drink lots of water, and then he’d jump-“

Pressure shot into his head with such force that Virdon thought his skull would explode, clogging his sinuses, pulsating in his throat. Zana ducked and stared at him wide-eyed, and he realized that he’d hurled the cup against the decayed wall behind her, and he was on his feet and he couldn’t even remember moving a muscle.

For a moment they just stared at each other; Virdon was sucking in air with too deep, too rapid breaths, and it was making him dizzy and it made the pressure in his head worse. His throat was tight and hurting, and his voice was hoarse.

„I don’t need to hear that, Zana! I don’t need to hear every single damn thing Urko did to humans to know what Pete’s in for! _I was down in that hole with Urko, remember?_ I’ve looked into his eyes and I know... I know...“ His breath was running out, and he had to take several of those sucking breaths, like a drowning man gasped for air before he was drawn under again.

„You need to face it, Zana, you need to face it“ _I need to face it_ „no matter how fast we ride, there’s a possibility... a, a strong possibility...“ and he had to take another breath, „no matter what we’ll do, we might be too late, or that he, that Pete, that he’ll be in such a bad shape that it’ll be the merciful thing to do to... the merciful thing...“

And now he couldn’t breathe anymore, no air was going in, none at all, and his heart sent jolts of stabbing pain through his chest, the kind of pain that signaled a heart attack and wouldn’t that be an ironic way to die? Not by the hands of an ape, on this world?

Zana made a step towards him and he turned away with a sudden, jerking motion. „Got to check on the horses.“ He needed... distance, and darkness, and fresh air, and _silence-_

He desperately needed a plan, but he lacked everything - information, resources, allies. Virdon buried his face in the horse’s mane and inhaled its scent, musk and honey and hay. The animal turned its head and breathed softly against his thigh.

He stood there for a long time, not thinking of anything.

When he returned to the fire, Zana had already buried herself under her blankets. For a moment he thought of apologizing to her, but he was too wrung out to really care. Galen had put away the damn book and was tending to the fire, his face thoughtful.

„I’ll take first watch,“ Virdon murmured, hypnotized by the flames.

„I’m absolutely sure that you’ll lead us to safety, Alan,“ Galen said gently. „And I’m equally sure that we’ll be able to save Peet, no matter what state he’s in. I have a cousin-“

„Urko will know all your connections by now,“ Virdon said flatly. „Don’t even think of visiting your parents - his men will have them under surveillance around the clock.“ Not for the first time the thought occurred to him that their pursuit had run so smoothly until now because Urko had called off his men - why chase after your prey if you could just let it come to you? And Urko had the ultimate bait now.

„That _is_ a good thought,“ Galen agreed. „Well, I do have some more... obscure contacts, too. In fact, I can think of at least one of them who’ll be happy to be part of the adventure.“

Virdon stared at him. „The _adventure?“_

Galen’s eyes crinkled at the corners. „That is exactly how he will see it - as a magnificent prank we’re playing on Urko. And I have no intention to disabuse him from that notion. It will keep him motivated.“

Virdon just shook his head and put another log on the fire.

„Alan.“

When he looked up, there was no distrust in Galen’s eyes. Only compassion.

„We will find your - _our_ friend. And we’ll find him in time.“

With that, he retired for the day. Virdon leaned against the mossy stones of what might have been an altar once, and began to count the hours until dusk.


	2. Chapter 2

They were back in the interrogation room.

The light was stabbing in Burke’s eyes, giving him the worst headache since he had crashed on this fucked-up version of his home planet many moons ago. Damn monkeys hadn’t let him sleep ever since Vanda had dismissed him, pounding him with unholy noise - gongs, whistles, rattles, and what sounded as if someone was throttling a herd of geese.

Probably their version of „Born in the USA.“

Burke suspected that they had positioned the big band at the other side of the ventilation shafts of his cell, but it had been pitch black in there, so it was just an educated guess. After a while, the sound had seemed to crawl into his brain through the very bones of his body, even though he had pushed his fingers deep into his ears; his teeth were vibrating with the rhythm of the rattles and drums that were marching up and down the corridor. Or maybe they had been clattering from the cold.

This time, Vanda didn’t allow him to sit - she pretended to be engrossed in her files, rifling through the pages as if she was looking for something. She put up a good show, Burke granted her that.

An aspirin would be nice.

„So, Burke, how about filling out that form with me today?“ Vanda asked without looking up. Burke just sighed and scratched his brow.

What do you do when you get captured by the enemy? Try to escape? Wait for the cavalry to show up and get you out, hopefully without killing you in the process? Hold out until whatever information you have stored in your brain has gotten past its due date so it’s worthless to your captors?

Whatever you do, there’s a simple rule to follow in the meantime: don’t tell the bastards anything but the bare essentials.

„Burke, Peter J...“

„Ya ya ya,“ Vanda said impatiently, flapping her hand. She was still pretending to be busy with her folder. „I know, I know. Major, service number D 39046375, born November 29th, 2042...“ She shot him a quick glance.

Burke blinked.

„Ah.“ Vanda smiled at his surprise. „Do you think I didn’t do my homework, Major Burke? Did you think I’m a dumb monkey?“

_Am I talking in my sleep?_

He hoped he had managed to keep his face blank this time, but damn, it was a one-two punch to first hear your birthday - your effing _year of birth! -_ and then your favorite term of endearment for the damn m... the apes in the span of ten seconds. That chimp knew how to get her blows in.

„I know just about everything about you that there is to know.“ Vanda didn’t give him time to regroup. „Parents both deceased, you have no wife, no children... presumably...“ She raised her brows at the last word, „you indulge in dangerous activities that you call...“ she consulted the topmost file in her folder, „’hobbies’, and you are quite promiscuous, even for a human.“

„What can I say? The ladies love me,“ Burke quipped weakly. Where the _hell_ had she gotten all that information on him? He tried to remember what he had told Zana back in the institute. He had amused himself with running verbal circles around her, but perhaps it had been _her_ who had tricked _him_...

„Oh, so you agree with my entries for your admission form so far? - I’ll take that as a yes,“ Vanda said when he didn’t answer, and scribbled something in the margins of her file.

_Better get your shit together, Major._

„Well, let’s see,“ Vanda said busily, „before you became an astronaut,“ she only hesitated slightly over the word, „you were a member of the Aehr Foss...“

„Air Force,“ Burke muttered.

„Why thank you, Pete,“ Vanda smiled at him, and Burke bit his tongue.

He was tired now. He’d be exhausted tomorrow, and delirious some time after that, and if he couldn’t even manage to keep his tongue in check _now..._

„Oh, come on, sit down! I don’t want to have to crane my neck throughout our conversation,“ Vanda said genially, and Burke obeyed.

No need to antagonize them over inconsequential shit, right?

Vanda folded her hands over her papers and leaned forward, giving him a sympathetic smile. „I’m saddened to see how badly the rough handling by General Urko’s men has affected you, Burke.“ Her smile turned into a worried frown. „You’re pale, withdrawn, exhausted-“

„Yeah, you try sleeping when there’s a damn brass band marching up and down the corridor of your cell...“ Burke muttered before he could stop himself.

Vanda’s frown deepened. „What in the world are you talking about?“

Burke eyed her warily, but she seemed to be genuinely confused. Perhaps that little torture hadn’t been her idea, but Urko’s. He gestured vaguely towards the door behind him. „Someone’s playing Death Metal on the other side of my door.“ A thought occurred to him. „I’ll skip the bath you offered me, for a nap.“

Vanda raised her brows, nonplussed. „Oh.“ Then she smiled and pointed her pen at him. „I have a better idea: I’ll find out who’s behind that prank and make sure they stop, if you help me fill out the rest of that form.“

Burke leaned back. „No can do. Sorry.“

Vanda sighed. „I somehow get the feeling that you aren’t fully aware of the realities of your situation, Burke. So let’s lay down some facts. You’re currently _my_ prisoner. The only persons I’m accountable to are General Urko and Council Eldest Zaius.“

_The dynamic duo..._

Burke remembered the old orangutan from the secret tribunal that had been held by some inner circle to decide his and Al’s fate. The first glimpse of that old bastard had sent a warning tingle down his spine that had somehow alarmed him more - or differently - than the bloodlust in Urko’s eyes.

Urko was brutal. But Zaius was _calculating._ Of course he’d be behind this whole clusterfuck.

„They, and the guards at this facility, are also the only ones who know where you are,“ Vanda continued. „Nobody else knows that you’ve even been captured. There are no reports anywhere, no paper trail that’d help Galen to determine your whereabouts.“ Her eyes bored into him. „Nobody will come to your rescue, Burke. So don’t put your hopes on your friends. There’s no point in ‘holding out’.“

Burke felt his eyes drooping shut. He was so damn tired... he heard Vanda, and he understood her words, they just didn’t mean anything. A wave of dizziness swept over him.

_„Burke!“_

Burke yanked his eyes open. Vanda was still staring at him. „Did you hear what I just said?“

„Yeah.“

She held his gaze for a long moment, appraising him. „A suggestion: I’ll read the entries on your admission form to you, and you just confirm the entries that are correct. And then you’ll get to sleep. The full ten hours, Burke. How about that?“

Burke was so tired that he was alternating between hot flashes and freezing chills in turns. He could _sense_ himself lying down in his cell, pulling that old blanket over him and drifting off-

He clenched his teeth and forced his eyelids up again. It was so tempting to just let her go through her list of his hobbies and former addresses and just nod along while she checked the boxes. _So_ damn tempting.

But he wasn’t yet tired enough to forget that this wasn’t the point of the fucking game. Vanda didn’t give a damn about the color of his favorite underwear. Those little factlets were completely irrelevant. The point was to make him submit to her demands, however small and ridiculous they were at the beginning. ‘cause that was the second point: they wouldn’t _stay_ small and ridiculous.

Mind games. That’s what that chimp was playing with him. Messing with his head, making him comply, undermining his will.

He shook his head. „’m not gonna help you, Vanda. You said it yourself, I’m your prisoner. That makes you the enemy.“

Vanda put her pen down. „Oh, Burke,“ she said sadly, „you’re wrong. I’m the closest thing to a friend that you have here. I told you that General Urko is my superior - as the head of the police force, he is fully entitled to lead the interrogations himself.“ She watched him closely. „You may want to reconsider your decision.“

His upper lip had begun to prickle at the mention of Urko, and now the sensation had spread to his lower lip and chin, and down his throat. His heart was leaping against his ribs, and his arms felt heavy and weak.

He took a trembling breath. "I can't remember a single thing from my former life. 's all gone." _Happened to a different man, in a different life._ It wasn't even a lie.

"If the general decides the results aren't coming in fast enough, there's nothing I can do," Vanda warned him. "And I don't understand why you're so stubborn - I want to help you, Burke! I _know_ that you didn't do anything wrong."

When he didn’t react, she shrugged with a sigh and waved for his guard.

„I hope I’ll see you again, Burke,“ he heard her voice as the bag was pulled over his head again. „But I’m afraid it’ll be Urko you’ll have to convince of your innocence.“

* * *

Galen didn’t consider himself to be religious anymore - he had shed that habit a long time ago, to the chagrin of his mother - but it was hard not to feel awe at the sight of the massive building breaking out of the forest like the hunter god it was dedicated to. He secretly wished that Melvin’s cousin had chosen a different order than that of Blue Eyes, but as his mother was fond of saying, beggars couldn’t be choosers, and right now, they needed any help they could get.

At least simian art wasn’t figurative. There was a slim chance that Alan would never learn that this particular deity was also venerated by the apes as the Slayer of Man.

Galen had left him and Zana waiting in the underbrush by the side of the road; for one thing, the monks didn’t look too kindly on women, and even less on humans - naturally -, but he was also pretty sure that if Urko hadn’t called off his men, as Alan had said, they’d be looking for an ape couple with a human in tow, and he didn’t want to make it _that_ easy for the general. Right now, he was just a single traveler. A tired, dusty, and thirsty traveler. He rang the bell.

„I’m here to see _Privat_ Ango,“ he said, when the concierge of the day finally appeared. He hoped he had remembered the title right. The ape eyed him critically, told him to wait, and disappeared again. It took him a while to return, giving Galen the opportunity to worry himself into a quiet frenzy over secret police and priestly informants. When the monk finally returned with Ango in tow, he caught himself scanning the yard behind the returning monks for black uniforms.

„You need my advice, son?“ Ango said gently, and Galen fought down his amused irritation at his choice of address - Ango was several years younger than him. Galen had remembered him from Melvin’s numerous parties, but apparently he hadn’t made the same lasting impression on the younger ape. Or maybe Ango had truly parted ways with the world when he had decided to join the order.

„I need more than that, _Privat,“_ he said politely. „Let us walk a bit, if you please.“

* * *

There were brief moments of silence.

Burke jerked up when a gong boomed right above his head all of a sudden, adrenaline sizzling through his spine and radiating into his limbs. He could feel his blood pressure shooting through the roof as his heart took up a stumbling gallop, and his stomach hurled acid into the back of his throat like a fucking volcano. He rolled over with a moaned curse and tried to bury his head deeper into his blanket.

The pauses in the cacophony came at random intervals and never had the same length; they weren’t respites from the infernal noise, but amplifiers. By now, Burke was covered in cold sweat, and his cell seemed to spin around him even in the complete darkness that engulfed him. The damn monkeys apparently had no idea what they were doing, how to measure out the stimuli; they were going at it full speed. By the time they’d pull him out of this hole again, they’d already have pureed his brain, and he’d be nothing more than a gibbering, incoherent mess...

-at least he wouldn’t be able to tell them anything then.

Someone grabbed him by the neck - he hadn’t heard them entering through all the noise - and yanked him up, and the spinning sensation shifted into higher gear. Burke’s knees buckled, and he broke down again, and the guard cursed and dragged him out into the corridor.

There was light, but the noise was even louder here. Before his eyes could get used to the sudden brightness, the ol’ stinking bag was pulled over his head again, and he was walked down the corridor to his next session. Burke remembered that Vanda had threatened him with letting Urko ask the questions next time. He hoped she had been bluffing. He didn’t feel up to wrestling King Kong today.

But when the guard yanked him to a halt, he knew he was out of luck even before they ripped the bag off. The very air seemed to be heavy, and the silence radiated darkness and...

... and death. Burke felt the tiny hairs on his neck rise.

Urko’s face was unreadable as he studied him.

„Strip,“ he said finally.

Another wave of dizziness swept over Burke, and he blinked rapidly. He wasn’t sure he had heard the gorilla right. His ears were still ringing, even in the silence of this room, so perhaps...

“...what?“

Urko raised his brows. „I told you to take your clothes off,“ he said calmly. „They reek.“

Burke swallowed, but didn’t move. „Well, Vanda promised me a bath...“

Urko nodded almost imperceptibly at the guards; the fabric was no match to simian strength. Burke tried not to cower - it wouldn’t conceal anything, and damn it, he had no reason to be embarrassed.

But it was a strange feeling to be the only one naked in a room full of clothed people, even if the people were apes.

„Our citizens like to dress up their pets as if they were people,“ Urko said with a slight, humorless smile. „Or maybe they just don’t want to be forced to look at your genitalia all the time, especially since you can’t control yourselves. But in here, I see no reason to pretend you’re anything else but an animal.“

_Fuck you._

There was no folder on the table this time. There wasn’t even a single sheet to make notes. Urko got up from his chair and casually rounded the table. „You gave me a nice chase there, Burke, and I greatly enjoyed it, but I’ll enjoy this even more.“ He gave him a toothy grin. „It’s really simple: I ask you a question, you answer it truthfully, and I won’t hurt you.“ The grin broadened. „Of course I’m counting on you to refuse to answer... right away.“

Burke focused on his breath, keeping it calm and steady. The adrenaline had wiped away his exhaustion, and he felt almost ready to take on whatever Urko was going to dish out to him.

Urko leaned against the desk. „Who helped you to evade my men?“

Burke took a deep breath. „Nobody helped us.“

Urko smiled again, and Burke tensed, expecting the first blow. „I want the names of the apes that befriended you,“ Urko said mildly, „the ones that gave you food, the ones that hid you from my patrols, and I want to know when and where you met them.“

„I... I’m sorry,“ Burke improvised. „I have this ringing noise in my ears... must’ve come from the noise in my cell - all those drums and gongs and stuff. I can’t hear you... couldn’t hear you when you told me to strip, either.“ It wasn’t the most elegant way of delaying his answers, but if he made communication too much of a hassle, perhaps Urko would give up and send for Vanda again...

„Dako, what does a human need to answer a question?“ Urko asked one of the guards.

The chimp startled; apparently he hadn’t expected to become part of the game. But he quickly recovered, or remembered the correct answer. „Just its tongue, sir.“

„Ah. Not its nose, or its eyes?“

Burke didn’t like where this was going.

„No, sir.“

„Then I guess we’ll focus this human’s attention a bit. Take out its left eye.“

Burke jerked back, „Whoa there! Hold up!“, and collided with the guard behind him, who shoved him back. He came to a stumbling halt before Urko. „You gotta be kidding!“ That monkey had been raised on too many crappy horror B-flicks, no doubt about that!

„So you can hear me when it suits you,“ Urko drawled. „You think I’m bluffing? Huh?“

„No.“ Hell, it wasn’t enough to crash into a future with walking, talking apes - it had to be walking, talking, _sociopathic_ apes. Just his luck. Burke wiped the sweat from his lip. „But I’m not bluffing, either. Look,“ damn, was he really trying to talk sense into a _gorilla?_ Would he ever get used to the sheer absurdity of this whole setup? „Look, I can’t answer your question. We have no list of contacts, we never expected to land here. We never _wanted_ to land here! And all we want now is to get the hell out of here!“ He took a step back and raised his hands. „We’re not conspiring with any apes, and we’re not touching your humans, okay?“ And yes, he felt crappy about it, because somebody _should_ take them out of the apes’ dirty paws, but it wouldn’t be him, not today.

Urko wasn’t moved. Well, there was a surprise. „You’d never have escaped me for so long if you didn’t have help, from apes or humans, or both. That’s treason, even if you were dumb and mute.“ He eyed Burke as if he contemplated how to put him into that condition, and Burke took another step back.

This time, Urko followed him, step by step by step, until Burke felt the wall at his back. Urko closed in, the heat of his body radiating against Burke’s bare chest.

„I want the names, Burke. I want the places, and the dates, and I _will_ get my answers, today, tomorrow, or some time later. I have all the time in the world.“ He smiled and closed his hand around Burke’s throat. „This is exactly how I had your friend against the wall, down in that hole. And _he_ learned soon enough to do as he was told.“ His grip tightened, and stars exploded in Burke’s vision. „You’ll learn, too, and I’ll take my sweet time teaching you.“

He let go all of a sudden and gestured to the guards. „Beat him up. But go lightly - you know how fragile humans are.“

The guards closed in around him, eyes alight with excitement. Burke couldn’t see Urko anymore, but he heard the deep gravelly voice as the first blow exploded against his ribs.

„I still have plans for this one.“

* * *

„You want me to pose as _what?“_

Alan looked even more pale and haggard than before with his freshly colored hair; but his eyes were made brighter and more striking by the dark brown color. They had immediately caught the attention of the monks - all animals with bright eyes belonged to the god - which had given Ango the idea of dressing him up as a...

„It _is_ just a masquerade, Alan,“ Galen said soothingly. „Nobody is going to harm you.“

„I’m not a goat,“ Alan said through clenched teeth, „or a pig. I can’t believe that at one time, you actually _did_ this!“

Galen shrugged apologetically. „You know how it is with religion...“

„I’m a _Kristian,“_ Galen made a mental note about the unknown word from Alan’s language - he’d ask him about it when he wasn’t so outraged anymore; it seemed to be a human religious sect... He tuned back in just in time to hear the rest of Alan’s tirade. “...no human sacrifices! That’s barbaric!“

„Well, they don’t do that anymore,“ Galen said in the same calm and, he hoped, soothing voice. „They just draw some drops of blood andwewon’tevendothat,“ he rushed to assure the human.

Alan stared at him for a long moment, and Galen suddenly remembered the episode he’d had in the temple ruins. The human had apologized to Zana the next morning, and Zana had hugged him and forgiven him - of course! -, but it had been scary. During that frozen moment, neither he nor Zana had remembered the fact that any ape was infinitely stronger than a human. Alan wouldn’t have been able to hurt either of them, even if he’d wanted. But for some reason, the sheer force of his rage had paralyzed them.

Then the human heaved a deep sigh, and closed his eyes for a moment. „Alright. I guess it’s the best option.“

„At least you’ll get a nice bath,“ Galen said encouragingly. Alan just growled, and Galen found it wise to leave him in Zana’s care. He retreated to the shade of a jasmine bush to read Melvin’s note again.

_So... „Yuma“_

_of course I’d be happy to meet you for talking about that splendid business opportunity you spoke of. Don’t worry about your lodgings, I’ll take care of everything. Spill a little blood for me, I’ve set eyes on this cute (and very rich) lady, and I could use some luck!_

_Best regards_

_Melvin_

Galen fought the urge to roll his eyes - he half expected to find „nudge, wink“ scribbled in the margins. Of all his acquaintances, Melvin was the least suited to clandestine meetings and secret missions.

Well, always do the unexpected. Maybe Urko wouldn’t even consider Melvin, either.

He glanced across the yard to where Zana was leading Alan into one of the basins for the ritual bath for the... the sacrifices. Not that he had approved of the practice before... well, to be honest, not that he had wasted a single thought on the practice before. But seeing their human - their _friend_ step into the water, with Ango swinging an incense burner over him, suddenly made him feel profoundly uneasy, and out of step with the rest of apekind.

 _I don’t belong to them anymore,_ he realized as he looked at that scene. But it didn’t make him feel closer to the human, either.

He just felt lonely.

Galen sighed and turned his thoughts away from Alan, who was dunked under water repeatedly by Ango - _don’t push it, Privat, or I won’t guarantee for our human -_ and to their next steps.

They would walk brazenly through the gates again, the same way they had left weeks ago: with fancy costumes and faked identities. Galen had to clamp down on his panic every time that realization bobbed into his consciousness like a cork he was trying to hold under water. No matter that they had been getting better at changing their appearances, and no matter that Peet had stolen one of Aken’s sealed orders so that Alan could use it as a template to carve another prefect’s seal, his own acting abilities hadn’t improved since that first encounter with Urko’s patrols.

Neither had his nerves.

Assuming they wouldn’t be snatched up immediately by the guards, he and Alan would meet with one of Melvin’s carriages halfway to the city’s temple district, and be brought directly to one of his family’s town houses, where they’d reunite with Zana, who...

... who would need to cross the gates on her own, and he still had no idea how she was planning to pull off that miracle. Galen crumpled Melvin’s note in frustration and stalked back to her and Ango; the two Chimpanzees were busy fumigating poor Alan with holy smoke, Ango chanting some verses from the Scrolls. Alan’s eyes were staring unseeingly into the distance; Galen had no idea if he was dazed by the smoke, or planning how to find Peet... or how to get back at him for turning him into a sacrificial offering.

Alan took a deep breath all of a sudden, returning from wherever his mind had taken him, and turned to Ango, who was now holding a smudge stick over his head. „Is that... _hashish?“_

Galen didn’t know the word, and Ango froze for a second, looking equally confused. Before either of them could react, the human had snatched the bundle from the priest’s hand. „Gimme that!“ He took a deep draw.

Galen gaped as Alan let the smoke drift out of his nostrils again. His eyes drooped shut, but he didn’t look any more relaxed, just tired and dejected.

„This holy weed is a drug,“ Ango ventured. „It’s relatively mild, and it’s meant to relax the animal...“ he took a step back when Alan opened his eyes and gave him a piercing look, „but I was given to understand by your... by Yuma here that he wants you awake and alert.“

„Don’t worry,“ Alan murmured and took another draw. The glowing tip of the bundle flared up with a faint crackle. „I can take a bit of weed without dropping out.“

This was very untypical of Alan. Galen glanced at Zana; her expression confirmed his assessment, and his unease deepened. Although he was responsible for getting them into the city, everything else from that point on was in Alan’s hands. Zana had said he had been a kind of soldier among his own people. Galen had counted on it that Alan knew what should be done next.

„Don’t worry,“ the human repeated, and Galen found himself caught in the glare of those bright blue eyes. „I won’t space out on you. Just get me inside the city walls, and I’ll take care of finding Pete and getting him out of wherever Urko is holding him.“

„What about you?“ Galen asked Zana, glad to have a reason to avert his eyes. „You can’t pose as a priest, at least not for Blue Eyes...“

„Don’t worry about me, dear,“ Zana said and plucked the bundle from Alan’s fingers, who didn’t protest, to Galen’s secret amazement. „I’ll attach myself to a nice grandmother who needs help with her shopping basket, or a young mother with unruly children in tow...“

Zana was much more comfortable with playing a role, Galen thought, slightly envious. Pretending to be someone he wasn’t felt all too much like lying to him, and right now, he wished his _genna_ wouldn’t be so adamant about choosing the truth at all costs-

He remembered The Book.

But then you didn’t get to choose your spirit.

* * *

He never got his clothes back.

It was completely dark in his cell, and cold, and it got worse once the guards decided that he stank (and it was true, his sweat stank, and his piss stank, although he produced less and less of both; not enough water left in him, and he was so _thirsty)_ and hosed him down with ice water until he was a shivering naked mess, curled up on the stone floor of his cell. His whole body was in pain now, it was impossible to ignore anymore, there just wasn’t a single part of it left that didn’t hurt.

Shift your mind to a safe place, a good memory, they’d said. But he couldn’t hold a thought any longer, he couldn’t remember anything - which was good, for some reason, but he couldn’t remember that reason anymore, either. He couldn’t remember, and he couldn’t figure out a plan, and past and future shrank down to this moment in the darkness, an eternal now of fear and pain.

Burke found he welcomed the pain when it finally came; it was better than waiting for it, tensing up in anticipation, wondering where the next blow would hit. It was just like his Dad to kick him in the ribs when he was already down, but the man was drunk, didn’t know what he was doin’, would be sorry in the morning, not that Pete gave a shit...

_There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no pla-_

Someone grabbed him under the arms and dragged him upright, and all his bruises and cracked ribs and swollen joints howled in unison. „Rise and shine, my pretty, rise and shine!“

They dragged him out into the corridor; the noise was not as bad out here, or perhaps it was only in his head now, a constant gurgling and hissing as if someone had left the shower running, or as if there was a dinner conversation going on in the other room...

His captor let go of his arm, and his knees buckled, and he dropped on the floor. The light was stabbing in his eyes and he couldn’t focus them right and rubbing them didn’t help, either.

The others laughed (there were always others, whenever one of them took him out to play, always a captive audience, ha, nice pun, right, captive audi-)

„Look at that thing.“

„It stinks - pissed itself again.“ Someone kicked him, but not too hard, and he didn’t react. Play dead, make yourself uninteresting, maybe they’ll give up sooner...

Cold fluid washed over him, and a terrible stench filled his nostrils. The other voices cried out in disgust. „I’m gonna puke!“ - „You shithead, that was the piss bucket!“ - „Oops.“

That last voice was full of chuckles.

„Yeah, think we have to clean you up now for real, frog.“

Frog was his name now. His guards had gleefully explained it to him - no fur, and croaks all day. Although he’d stopped talking a long time ago.

A long time a long time a long... how long? Couldn’t remember. How long’d he beenhere? No idea. Forever.

Icy cold hitting his chest, taking his breath away. Someone tore at his arms, bound his wrists and then yanked him to his feet. His wrists were pulled up, over his head, and fastened to a hook. He looked to his left, but Al wasn’t there.

He wasn’t at the institute. He remembered now. That had been... before, when they had been brought into the city for the first time. The apes had hosed them down, just like n-

For a while, no thoughts, just fighting not to drown.

At least he was more awake now, adrenaline pulsing sluggishly through his veins. Burke turned his head and licked the water off his arms. It wasn’t enough, but it was so good, the only good thing about the ice bucket treatment they gave him.

„Look at the little kitty!“ Laughter, and the ape unhooked him. Burke managed to stay on his feet this time, a little wobbly, but at least he was at eye level now.

Not that he’d make eye contact with any of them. That just invited more abuse.

„Gonna clean yourself up like that all over? Think you’ll reach everywhere?“ More laughter, but that was something he was good at ignoring now. He knew the drill by now, the comments would only get nastier, but sticks and stones and stuff, right?

„Now, I’m taking good care of you, sweetheart, got you cleaned up nicely, so I’d say it’s time to put you through the paces, hmm? We wanna keep you fit and... well, not healthy, that’d be a lie.“

A fresh wave of exhaustion swept through his limbs, hot and dry and heavy. He wasn’t up to this shit, he wasn’t...

„Squat.“

He obeyed. Standing had been too much effort, anyway.

„Now hop.“

Burke forced his heavy head up and blinked at the chimp. „Wha-?“ His voice was a hoarse whisper. Too dry, and he hadn’t used it for a while now.

„You heard me.“ The guard nudged his ass with his boot. „Hop around, my little frog.“

Burke stayed where he was. His legs were like water; he doubted he’d be able to stand up again, let alone leap down the corridor. They’d beat him up for that, but he just _couldn’t-_

„Can’t.“

„Yeah, I see you need a bit of encouragement.“

The guard started to loosen his belt, and Burke hung his head and waited. He could take a beating; he’d learned that a long time ago.

It was okay until the guard switched ends and used the belt buckle on him.

Burke made a stumbling leap, more a crawl than a hop, really, but that wasn’t the point anyway, the point was to make him obey whatever senseless thing they’d demand of him. Another crawl-leap, on all four now, to the cheers and whistles of the audience.

„Look at that dangling dick!“

„He’s hung like a horse!“

„A tiny horse!“

More laughter.

He couldn’t go on anymore. He just didn’t have the energy. His body was hot, and dry, and the muscles in his thighs were cramping and the cramps wandered up his back and into his neck and jaw. He stayed squatted, limbs trembling, until the guard kicked his back, and he just fell on his side.

„You’re not finished, frog!“

„What is going on here?“

A new voice. New shift coming down to his hell. New games...

„Just exercising the prisoner, mate. Nothing serious.“ Shuffling feet, amicable chatter between incoming and outgoing monkeys. Didn’t concern him, for a few precious moments they were busy with each other. A few precious seconds of sleep...

„Get up, you!“ Another kick in the butt, another vise-like grip around his arm, and he was dragged down a corridor into another room.

There was a tiny cage in the middle of the room. He couldn’t stand upright in it - not that he’d have the strength to do that anymore - and he couldn’t lay down, either. Burke drew his knees to his chest and hugged his arms around his shins. The new guard bent down and stared at him through the bars.

„Enjoy your new home, frog. And remember - stay awake.“ He winked.

„You never know what’s coming for you.“

* * *

„Come in, come in!“ Melvin ushered them into the hall with a dramatic whisper and a blatant conspiratorial glance up and down the street.

This had been a terrible idea, Galen thought tiredly.

The ground level of Melvin’s house was dark and bare, typical for the older town houses - the lower levels were used for storing food and housing the slaves - and for greeting guests that one intended to get rid of again as soon as possible. Galen sniffed; a faint smell of urine hung in the air. It had a sharp note to it, like from a predator, but not human.

Melvin bent down and swooped a small, furry creature into his arms. „There you are, you adorable little fluff ball! Where’s your sister, hmm? No, you’re not getting out. There are bad apes out on the streets.“

A cat. Melvin had cats.

Yes, it _had_ been a terrible idea.

„You know,“ Melvin said as soon as he had closed the heavy front door, and turned to face them, „I suspected you weren’t out to watch _actual_ birds when we last met, but I must admit, I thought you were talking about some pretty bird you were meeting behind her father’s back. Imagine my surprise when Urko started glueing your picture on every tree in the city!“ He glared at Galen, although the effect was somewhat diluted by the cat clawing its way up his arm until it perched on his shoulder.

All of a sudden, Melvin thumped him on the back. „The scandal! The outrage!“ He roared with laughter. „You really should’ve let me in on your dirty little secret! Well, at least now we’ll have a little fun together. - And that’s yours?“

It was impossible to get a word in when Melvin was on a roll; Galen straightened and rotated his bruised shoulder. Melvin was circling Alan, who suffered his inspection with a stony face. Well, at least Melvin didn’t touch him - their human was in a dangerous mood lately.

„Well, trust you to fall on your feet, old boy! Where did you find this fine specimen?“ Melvin peered into Alan’s eyes. „That’s not its natural color, is it? Why did you color its hair- oh well, probably for the best if you don’t want to strap it onto your back. I can think of _some_ apes who’d pay a fortune for this one, and ask no questions how the trader came by it...“

„Has my fiancée already arrived?“ Galen found it best to distract Melvin from his current train of thought before he could say something that would set off the human - again. Besides, he really was worried about Zana, who had been forced to try her luck separately from him and Alan. If she had been taken in by the guards-

„Oh yes, some time ago, in fact, which is amazing, considering her state. Follow me...“

Melvin led them upstairs to the living quarters proper, and into a small room with equally small windows. „I thought it would be best if the neighbors didn’t get a view of you,“ he said, clearly proud of his foresight. „It’s actually the room of my body servant, but in this special case, it’s just what we need for our meetings.“ He swung his arm out in a grand gesture. „And here’s your lovely mommy, Galen. Who’d have thunk you’d have it in you, huh?“ The cat jumped from his shoulder with a thud and hurried over to where Zana sat on the human’s bed, sporting a huge belly.

Galen felt his brows climb into his hairline against his will. So this had been the meaning of Melvin’s cryptic remarks! She _did_ look remarkably pregnant.

And, well, annoyed. „I _told_ you, it’s just a rolled up blanket, and I would’ve already removed it if I had just a moment of privacy! Hello dear,“ she turned to Galen without missing a beat. „What took you so long? I was getting worried...“

Galen hesitated. Their journey towards the temple district had been slowed down unexpectedly by a procession of devout apes who had asked for his blessing, and who had touched Alan for good luck. Well, some of them had pricked him with needles, for even more good luck, which hadn’t exactly improved the human’s mood. Galen had secretly admired his equanimity, but Alan knew they couldn’t blow their cover over some tiny pinpricks. His self-control had only wavered once, when a woman had asked for a real cut so that she would finally carry to term after several miscarriages.

There just had been no way to say no to that; not with so many bystanders. Galen hoped Alan had understood that, too. He was pretty sure, though, that Zana wouldn’t be that understanding.

„Just, just some ministerial duties,“ he said vaguely. Alan flicked him an unreadable glance, but kept silent. The human had been pretty silent since his breakdown in the temple ruins. It was beginning to unnerve Galen.

„Well,“ Melvin clapped his hands, „I’d say settle down, get some rest, and I’ll send something to eat to your room, and then I’ll meet you in an hour or so, and we can start making plans how to steal back your other human - that’s the dark one, right, the one you overloaded with all that bird watching gear? Bird watching, ha!“ He shook his head, still amused at Galen’s cover story.

Then his eyes wandered back to Alan, who was still standing in the doorway, exuding a quiet impatience. Melvin gestured at him. „That one’s better built for carrying loads, my friend. But of course we both know that’s not its real selling point. I do admire you for your business acumen, Galen; instead of schlepping the contents of your bank vault into exile, you let your asset walk there by itself! Genius! Oh, remind me to give you a list of reputable breeders later... I mean, he _is_ intact, right?“

Galen took him by the arm and steered him gently into the corridor. „That’s too kind, Melvin, but right now, I have more pressing concerns on my mind.“ Like putting enough distance between Alan and his thoughtless, well-meaning acquaintance before the human shook off his uncharacteristic stupor, for example. „We’ll get freshened up, and then we’ll meet for a war council, like you suggested...“

„We’ll show them, eh, Galen?“ Melvin pounded his paw between his shoulder blades again, making him cough. „We’ll show the old buffoons what two fellows from Cesar’s Academy of Law are capable of!“ He waddled downstairs, and with a sigh, Galen returned to their room.

„We need to set up surveillance of Urko as soon as possible,“ Alan said without preamble as soon as Galen had closed the door behind him. „Knowing him, he won’t be able to stay away from the proceedings.“ The human’s voice was completely devoid of emotion. „He’ll want to be there... probably wants to lead the interrogation himself. If we can follow him undetected, he should lead us directly to where they’re keeping Pete.“

„Where does Melvin come in?“ Galen wanted to know, becoming fascinated by the details of the operation against his will.

„Not at all, if you’re sensible! He thinks of this as a _game,“_ Zana threw in. „Really, Galen, I know it was difficult to find someone who Urko wouldn’t suspect of having connections to you, but this Melvin seems to be the worst choice you could have made!“

„He’s the _only_ choice I could have made,“ Galen clarified. He sat down on the cot beside her and eyed her blanket-enhanced belly. She really did look pregnant, it was uncanny. „Don’t worry about Melvin,“ he continued, consciously tearing his gaze away from the sight and fixing it instead on the cat that was kneading the blanket with her paws, „he may look like a bumbling idiot, but there’s a sharp mind under all that bluster. And we can’t cut him out - as long as he feels he’s an important part of this mission, he’ll be motivated to help us.“

„I don’t give a damn about Melvin’s motives,“ Alan said, still in that flat voice, „only his usefulness. We have a base of operations that Urko doesn’t even think of in his wildest dreams, and we can use your asset to get access to information and resources we’d otherwise have no chance of obtaining. I intend to set up surveillance as soon as it’s gotten dark.“ He eyed Zana, and Galen felt his fur bristle at the human’s appraising, completely inappropriate gaze towards an ape.

„I think it’s best if you stayed here for the night, Zana,“ Alan said finally, „and I take the first shift with Galen. I need to teach you how to follow a target inconspicuously, and it’s easier if I only have to keep an eye on one of you at a time.“

„Ooh _no!_ Don’t you dare to sideline me like that!“ Zana was furious. „If you think I’ll sit here and... and do the dishes for you, while Peet is suffering unspeakable things-“

A faint smile tugged at Alan’s lips, the first emotion Galen saw since the human had hurled his cup at her in the temple ruins. „You _are_ part of the mission Zana, don’t worry. I need a map of the city; the last... the last time Pete and I were trying to find the council, we lost precious time because we got lost a few times and had to circle back. We need to have our routes of retreat planned out in advance this time. And I have some other tasks for you later... but I need to talk to this Melvin first.“

It wasn’t much, Galen knew. But it was enough to give them a sliver of hope.

If only Peet could hold out long enough.


	3. Chapter 3

Yalu’s household was sound asleep.

Urko leaned against the cool, misted wall behind him and wished for a smoke to pass the time until his scout came back. Of course he knew better than to announce to any sleepless neighbor that councillor Yalu was about to receive some unannounced visitors in the wee hours of the morning. On the other hand, once they’d set to work, everyone would fall out of their beds anyway. He patted down his vest for his tobacco pouch. Right then, the scout came back: nobody had tried to sneak out of - or into - Yalu’s house; all entrances were locked for the night.

Not a problem; they had brought a battering ram. Granted, there wasn’t a high chance that they’d get to try out all their new equipment on this occasion - Yalu was a high ranking council member, and you couldn’t just kick down a councillor’s door without _very_ good backup from the council itself - but you never knew how a situation developed. If Yalu decided to barricade himself in to protect his wayward son...

Urko surveyed his team with a last sweeping glance - their body armour was well hidden under their usual uniforms, and apart from the battering ram, they wore no special weaponry, at least not where you could see it. This unit was still experimental, and Urko preferred to keep it concealed from the council’s attention for now. They had still to prove themselves.

He squinted at something gleaming from one of the men’s uniforms. „What’s that on your collar, tac four?“ They weren’t using names; no need to give away their identities to Zaius’ spies.

The man fingered the offending piece of metal. „Jus’ a little badge, sir. Bush cat claws. My cousin’s a silversmith.“

Urko frowned. „Take it off. It reflects the light.“ And it was just too striking - displaying a part of their group’s unofficial name. The men had taken up his mention of them being the ‘teeth and claws of law enforcement’ and called themselves the ‘TAC team’ which was a play on words that Urko could get behind, but he wouldn’t allow them to have their wives sew blasted streamers with a thrice blasted logo on them!

The thing vanished into a pocket, and Urko waved his men to fall into line behind him. Much as he’d have loved to send them kicking down the front door, protocol demanded he’d try to be civilized first.

He knocked.

Nothing happened.

Urko stepped aside and jerked his chin towards the door. His lieutenant began pounding at it. „This is the CCP! Open the door!“

The pounding continued for some time, while the windows upstairs began to light up one by one. Urko lazily scratched his throat and silently ticked off the hits. He’d give the old fart three more rounds of banging and shouting until he’d allow his men - and himself - to bring out their new equip-

 _„What_ is this-“

The door was opened with a jerk, and the TAC barreled in, shoving Yalu aside and taking up position. It was meant to be as imposing and disorienting as possible, and so far, it had worked beautifully on every poor bastard they had selected.

_„Are you out of your blasted minds? Urko, I’ll have your head for this insolence!“_

Well, there had to be one bastard where it didn’t work, right? Urko wasn’t really surprised that old Yalu was that one.

Wouldn’t be half as fun if he wasn’t.

The TAC were doing their sweep now, taking care to topple the occasional piece of furniture and frisking the slaves with ferocious enthusiasm. Urko had promised the boys a bit of fun, as long as they didn’t forget to bring him Galen and his pets.

In the meantime, he’d chat with Yalu.

„You’re harboring a wanted criminal, councillor,“ he said amicably, while something crashed on the floor in the next room. Yalu owned one of the more avant-gardist houses in the city, with living quarters at ground level. It was very un-simian, almost like a human hut, and Urko didn’t mind if he suffered the consequences for it. „That’s a capital offense.“

Yalu flinched at the sound of breaking china, but kept his attention on him. „And I assume you have undeniable proof of that, Chief General? Because the Mothers may help you if you haven’t.“

Urko slowly shifted his weight on his other foot and bared his teeth to him. „I have several witness accounts of your son and his floozy arriving at your doorstep and being let in. I have _no_ witness accounts of them leaving, and I have no report that you had alerted us to come and take them into custody.“

The thudding of boots on the stairs suddenly faltered and stopped; when Urko looked up, Ann was standing at the top of the stairs. His men hesitated, looking up at her as if seeking permission to pass her by. For a tense moment, nobody spoke.

Then she wordlessly stepped aside, and his team resumed their ascent, a bit more subdued now. Ann swept down the stairs, her demeanor as unruffled as ever. „I’m afraid Mouna hasn’t set up water for our morning tea yet,“ she gave Urko a tiny nod, „as we didn’t expect you to drop by this early, General.“ Urko wasn’t sure if she had put a little more stress on ‘this early’. He gave her a reserved nod in return.

„The general was about to leave anyway,“ Yalu growled, „there’s no need to be polite to him and his ilk.“

„Manners reflect on the character of the owner, not the receiver, dear,“ Ann said dryly. „If you excuse me, General, I _do_ have need of a cup of tea now.“

She turned around once more in the doorway. „I will expect everything as you found it.“ Her gaze flicked meaningfully to the broken plates on the floor, and Urko felt his palms go hot.

„You heard your wife,“ he said gruffly, tearing his eyes away from her back, „the sooner you give them up, the less your interior will suffer. Of course, if you force us to turn every floorboard in your house to find them, the blame is entirely on y-“

„My son is not here, never was here, and is smart enough to never come here! Great Cesar, do you really think us such fools? No, don’t answer that - it’s common knowledge that idiots think everyone else is as dimwitted as them! Give me that!“ Yalu caught up to tac six with two swift steps and tore a bronze statuette of the Lawgiver from the officer’s hands. He turned back to Urko.

„You’re greatly overestimating the extent of your discretionary powers, Urko.“ He curled his lips into a predatory smile. „And I’ll see to it that they are cut down to size. You don’t cross a senior of the Council without suffering the consequences.“

Urko regarded him silently for a moment. Ol’ Yalu had come under considerable pressure from the rest of the council since his son had eloped with Zaius’ heretic book. Why the old fool had preserved those artifacts in the first place, instead of making a bonfire out of them was beyond Urko’s comprehension, but this wasn’t the time to challenge the Council Eldest on it. Especially when his way of handling things had dumped him into such a beautiful mess, him and his network of silverbacks.

„I’ll see you hang, councillor,“ he said softly, and felt a grim satisfaction when the old Chimp’s knuckles blanched into a tighter grip around the statuette. „I know that day will come. I can almost smell the breeze that you’ll be swaying in.“ He leaned closer. „I’ll find your son. If I don’t find him today, I’ll find him tomorrow, and if I don’t find him tomorrow, I’ll find him some other day. But I _will_ bring him before the council to be judged, and I’ll make sure to keep you alive until then, so you can watch your old buddies toppling their _pilas_ to send him to the gallows.“ He nodded at the statuette. „It’s what he would’ve wanted, too, after all.“

„Don’t invoke the Lawgiver in the face of your blatant disregard of His teachings!“ Yalu snapped. „If you had a shred of respect for him, you’d be tilling the fields out in the hills, as is your place!“

For a moment, Urko couldn’t breathe; long forgotten fields and creeks flicked up and were gone again before his inner eye, swept away by a red haze filling his vision. He let the rage wash over him and retreat; a crescending roar in his mind until it crested and broke at the jagged edges of his patience. He could wait this out. But one day, one day... Yalu’s face was staring at him from beyond the abyss, a frozen mask of old age and disdain.

„Don’t worry about me, old man,“ Urko said pleasantly, ignoring the grinding pressure behind his eyes, the angry heat lingering on his skin, „I know where my place is.“

„Sir.“

His lieutenant’s voice broke the spell; Urko stiffly turned towards him. „What?“

A quick look in the other’s face told him everything even before the man shook his head. „Targets aren’t here. We cleared all rooms.“

„I’ll have your head on a platter for this,“ Yalu growled.

Either their informant had lied... or just made a mistake, and the little criminal had never tried to crawl back under his mommy’s skirt, or they had been here and managed to sneak away again under the noses of his guards.

In either event, heads would roll. But he wasn’t worried about his own. Yalu had still not understood how things had changed in the meantime.

Urko just smiled and saluted him as he ambled out into the street.

Time to check on Galen’s other possible contacts.

* * *

Burke couldn’t feel his legs anymore, which wasn’t surprising, considering that they had put him into a cage that was too small to stretch his legs, but he also couldn’t feel his arms and hands, and that had him worried, in a distant, unreal kind of way, as if he was in a dream where you’re just a floating blob of awareness and that was exactly how he was feeling, unreal and floating and maybe he was really dreaming, although he was pretty sure that his eyes were still open.

He blinked.

Yes, his eyes had been open, but he wasn’t sure that he was really awake. There were movements at the edge of his vision -

_\- rats?_

... but when he turned his head, nothing was there, and the furtive, flitting motion resumed, again at the edge of his vision. It was driving him crazy.

At least they had stopped with the noise now. He was pretty sure that the whooshing sound was completely in his head. His blood pressure had to have climbed through the roof. Or crashed. He wasn’t sure. All he knew was that he was dizzy, and nauseous, and aching.

A hot flash of pain bored into his skull, tearing through his sinuses like a wildfire. He jerked back with a gasp and banged his head against the bars.

The guard stared at him from the other side of the bars. „No sleeping!“

Burke’s eyes were watering from the pain, his nose was running, the fluid burning like acid, and when he wiped at it, his palm came away red and sticky. He stared at it, then at the ape.

The guard held a long splint of wood in his hand, its tip glowing a bright orange.

The fucking monkey had rammed a burning stick up his nose!

There was a tired joke circling in his brain about roasting marshmallows and homemade lobotomies, but he lost track of the punchline before it had found its way on his tongue, and anyway, he doubted that he could unglue that sticky piece of leather from the roof of his mouth before the asshole had resumed his post at the far end of their hole.

_you an’ me we’re in this together, pal, you should really be nicer to me..._

His nose burned like fire, deep inside. Burke took a deep breath through his mouth and awkwardly shifted into a kneeling position. He wouldn’t sleep as long as _this_ asshole was in the room with him. Sweat poured down his sides, precious water he couldn’t afford to lose, actually. Next time his eyes fell shut, that crazy fucker might poke his glowstick through his eardrum. Or his eye.

He wouldn’t sleep. He could wait until shift changed. If he was lucky, the short, fat one would be next, the one who would always doze off himself, and then he’d snatch some glorious minutes of nothingness.

„Pete.“

The voice was right beside his ear, loud and clear and calm, without any urgency or emphasis, and Burke knew with perfect clarity that he was hallucinating, and that nobody was in there save for him and the monkey, but at the same time, his father was talking no three feet away from him, and he heard him as loud and clear as he had heard that guard a minute before.

He didn’t turn his head. He could deal with hearing things, but he’d get a stroke if he’d actually see his old man standing there.

A perverse urge to test this hallucination bubbled up inside him. „Hi Dad,“ he whispered. „Long time, no see - and let’s keep the ‘no see’ part, okay?“ He flicked a worried glance to the guard, but his tormentor didn’t react. Maybe hadn’t heard him.

Or he hadn’t actually said a word. Maybe he was dreaming again, inviting another stab with a hot poker. He tried to move, but found he was locked in sleep paralysis.

„Close the damn window, Pete. It’s raining.“

„Sure thing, Dad. It’s closed, see?“ He struggled to move an arm, a finger, _anything_ , to break out of sleep before his guard noticed his transgression.

With a jerk, he woke up. The guard glared at him, but he was very obviously awake, and thus safe.

His father had fallen silent. Burke allowed himself to breathe again.

„Reminds me of Cross River.“

Goosebumps washed over him in fevered shivers. „Oh yeah?“ he whispered. „Tell me what went down at Cross River, Dad. Tell me.“

„Damn rain. Reminds me of Cross River. Close the damn window, son.“

The rain is so thick it’s almost a second windowpane. Glass and liquid glass, sucking all the color from the room.

„It’s freezing cold outside, Dad.“ It’s not like in Africa, not at all.

„Reminds me.“ _Reminds me of Cross River._

Came back with a thousand yard stare and a silence that choked all the words in your throat. Pete can never decide what’s more scary, the silences or the yelling.

„Remind me, Dad. Remind me of Cross River.“

„Drops of water. Rain was so heavy, it made little dents in the puddles.“

He remembers now, and he’d throw up, but his stomach has been empty for days. Little dents.

„Had already clotted, like jam.“

Rain hammering down on pools of blood, on the bodies...

„Swarms of flies would startle up, break out of their mouths, you wouldn’t believe how loud they’d hiss, like an angry cat.“ His dad’s voice never changing, as if reading from a manual. „Guts smell like rot, like meaty rot, out in the open.“

„What did you do at Cross River, Dad?“

Silence.

_„What happened at Cross River?“_

„Shut up!“ The guard is there, kicking against the bars, and Burke jerks up and bangs his head.

Damn.

Been sleeping again.

It was hard to tell now, waking and sleep and dreams blurring into each other, and now he was dreaming of Zana, Zana holding his head and giving him water, oh god, cool, sweet, soft, delicious water, and he was drinking, drinking-

„No, no, not so fast. You’ll just throw it all up in a moment, and then you’ll be worse off than before.“

No, it was _real,_ Zana was _real,_ and she was _here,_ and she was giving him _real_ water, and he was so happy he wanted to cry, and he did cry, because that was okay, she was giving him water and he could afford to lose a bit again with the tears...

„Now come on, stop that.“ She sounded a bit embarrassed. No... irritated. He had... he had to get a grip on himself. With a groan, he rolled away from her. He’d drink some more water... but first, he’d sit up. And... and take the cup in his own hands.

He rubbed his bleary eyes and looked up.

Vanda was studying him with an unreadable expression.

„You,“ he said bleakly.

„Me,“ she confirmed.

„Can I have more water?“

She raised a brow at that. „Of course, Pete. I don’t condone this treatment that General Urko has ordered for you.“ She handed him the mug.

It was a trick, it had to be, but he was too tired to figure it out and the important thing was to secure the water, everything else would come to him, he just, he was so thirsty, and the more he drank, the worse it got-

She forced the mug out of his hand. „I told you, you must go slowly. No, I’ll give it to you now.“

She fed him the water sip by sip, and he felt embarrassed and anxious and _thirsty._

„You’ll get more, don’t worry,“ she assured him. „I won’t let you die here, Pete, I’ll make sure Urko won’t get near you anymore.“

Burke waited for the conditions that had to follow this promise, but none came. Instead, she forced his mouth open and pushed something inside. She held his jaw closed to prevent him from spitting it out-

Sweetness exploded on his tongue. It made him roll his eyes back in their sockets and wiped out all thought in a moment of white-hot bliss. It was syrupy, and sharp, and _concentrated,_ like caramel and cinnamon and sunshine, and it was drawing all the water he had just drunk to itself, making his mouth water and his eyes water and his nose water and he pressed his tongue against it, against its paper-like skin and the smooth, pasty flesh inside. And swallowed. And sighed.

She had fed him a date.

Burke could feel the sugar enter his blood, enter his brain, drawing the fogginess away like a curtain. The sounds got louder, the colors brighter, and Vanda’s face went from blurry to sharp, so sharp that he could see every single hair of her fur in unnatural resolution.

He was high, he realized. So that’s what a sugar high really felt like. He swallowed.

„Can I have another one?“

Vanda smiled. „So you know what I gave you.“

„Yeah.“

She cocked her head. „What was it?“

„It was a date.“

„That’s right.“ She gave him another one, and this time, he closed his eyes and really savoured it.

„How do you know dates?“

„Had them before.“ That got him another treat.

„And how do you know our word for it?“

„Za... Zana told me.“ That... that wasn’t a secret, right? They knew that Zana had been their handler, so-

Another date, and now he was ravenous all of a sudden.

„But you knew them even before you came here?“

Burke hesitated. If he told her yes, would she suspect he’d traveled through time? If not, she’d ask him how else he could know a fruit that only grew on her own world, as far as she knew.

„No,“ he lied.

This time, he didn’t get a date.

„You know,“ Vanda said briskly, „I’m really saddened to see how badly the general has treated you, and I don’t want to imagine what he’d do to you the next time he remembers you, but I also know that you’re a good... man. You don’t want to betray your friends, and I respect that. So why don’t we try to find a way to save you without putting you into such a terrible dilemma?“

She put a date in her mouth and chewed contemplatively. Burke tried not to swallow; he didn’t want to let her know how much he craved that fruit.

Saliva was pooling in his mouth and he had to swallow anyway. Vanda didn’t notice.

„I know for a fact that you didn’t incite insubordination in any of our humans, so you’re safe on that account. And I also know that any apes that may or may not have contacted you weren’t interested in you or your friend. You’re just humans, they wouldn’t even consider you.“ She smiled at him. „Wouldn’t you agree?“

Burke hesitated. But it was true what she said - they hadn’t told the humans to rise up and kill their simian overlords, right, and the apes had mostly talked with Galen and Zana. The apes that _had_ talked to him had told him to push the water wheel.

He nodded. He got another date. It was so sweet that he felt slightly sick, but he was too hungry to resist.

„So let’s talk purely hypothetical, and with the understanding that all those scenarios didn’t really happen. Imagine you wanted to start a rebellion against Urko...“

Now _that_ was an attractive thought.

„You wouldn’t stay around here, right? Under his feet. That would be dangerous. So where would you go?“

„I’d go West. Into the Forbidden Zones,“ Burke said promptly.

„But you were headed North, or so say my sources,“ Vanda pointed out sweetly. „So how do you know about the Blasted Zones in the West?“

„Must’ve... must’ve heard it somewhere,“ Burke murmured.

„Remember, we’re not talking about what really happened,“ Vanda reassured him. „Just what might have happened, if you had been a bad human.“ She gave him another date. „But I know you’re not, Pete. You’re a good boy, you did nothing wrong. Who could have told you about those zones? A human?“

Burke eyed the date in her hand.

* * *

Galen found Melvin in the kitchen, furiously chopping okras. „You cook yourself?“ He picked up a tiny tomato and idly rubbed it between his fingers.

„Ah, yes,“ Melvin scraped the vegetables from the cutting board into a wide pot, „I find it relaxing, and I use the time to rehearse my pleadings for the Council.“ The okras’ moisture evaporated with a hiss and crackle in the hot oil, and the aroma of peppers and garlic tickled Galen’s nose. His stomach growled and he realized how hungry he was.

„Like my plea in Duman vs Zonderval - ah, that one was genius. We won, of course. You heard about it? You must have, it was before your little, ah, heist on Zaius’ study. Man, oh man!“ Melvin chuckled and shook his head.

Galen popped the tomato in his mouth.

„There’s something I don’t quite understand, Galen.“ Melvin absently stirred the pot, while his gaze wandered up and down the shelves of his spice cabinet. „Ah, there you are!“ He reached for a wooden box. „Considering how fervently Zaius and the other old farts want to see you hang for making off with whatever you nabbed from that study, why did you come back? And please-“ he held up the spice box, „don’t start with that stolen human again. You pulled the wool over my eyes with that bird watching tale, and it was funny even then, but this is serious. I mean, I could get into trouble, too, for having you here, you know?“

Well, it had to dawn on him sooner or later, Galen thought wryly. Apparently puttering in the kitchen did help his old student buddy with thinking.

„I’m telling you the truth, Melv. Urko has my human, and I don’t want to imagine what he’s doing to him as we speak.“ He gently removed a cat from the table and sat down on a chair.

„Well...“ Melvin opened a battery of spices and began to dust his creation with the flair of a musical conductor. It did smell heavenly, Galen had to grant him that; if Melvin ever considered changing professions, chef wouldn’t be too bad a choice.

„That’s sad, really it is, but can’t you just buy another one? It couldn’t have cost too much, there was nothing unusual about it, as far as I can remember, not like the other one-“

„He has sentimental value for us,“ Galen interrupted him. What a lucky coincidence that Zana had been too tired to come with him. Or maybe it was because she was slightly exasperated with Melvin.

„Ah. Well. But... and I hate to tell you this... if Urko really has it... and we all know that Urko is, well, he’s Urko... Mistreated humans can get dangerous. That human you’ll retrieve will not be the human you lost.“

„I’m aware of that,“ Galen said quietly.

„You have a wife now, my friend, and a pregnant wife to boot. Do you really want to expose her to that risk?“ Melvin had stopped stirring his pot and stared at him, brows creased. „Maybe it would be best if you’d have it put down before something bad happens. Or just leave it be. I mean, sooner or later, Urko will get rid of it anyway.“

Galen just looked at him.

Melvin sniffed, put a lid on the pot and pushed it to the edge of the oven to let it simmer. „I know it sounds cruel...“

„It is cruel.“

„A human is just not worth taking the risks you’re taking, Galen, especially now that you have family! If Urko gets his hands on you...“

„Well, he won’t, will he? Not if you help us.“ Galen gave him his most disarming smile. „I wanted to ask you for some maps of the city, especially the older ones, before the fire. And I believe there is also at least one in the council archives for the sewers...“

„You want me to _steal from the council?“_ Melvin said, aghast.

„Not steal,“ Galen assured him, „just borrow. You’ll put it back again later.“

„If someone sees me in the archives...“

„Then you’re researching something for a case. Nobody will dare to question you, Melvin - not after Duma vs Zonderval.“ Galen held his breath - had he laid it on too thick?

But Melvin nodded furiously. „Right! Those damn Orangutans think they can stick their noses into everything, but a case is strictly confidential!“ He put his wooden spoon aside and sat down at the table opposite of Galen with a wheezing sigh. „All that trouble for a human! And a fey human to boot! You know, I had a favourite horse as a boy, and I loved it to bits, but we had to sell it and when my father bought it back, it had been ruined by its new owners. Almost trampled me to death. Our head groom had to shoot it. I cried for days. But better it than me, huh?“

„Peet is not a horse,“ Galen said mildly. „Horses are stupid.“

„Oh, don’t underestimate the buggers! They know exactly where to kick you.“ Melvin patted his knee and one of his countless cats jumped on it and began kneading his thighs. Melvin began to ruffle her behind her ear. Then he pointed at her. _„_ Now _this_ is a smart animal! They’re so smart that they have managed to tame _us_ and make us their servants! But they’re still soulless things, Galen.“ Then he sighed and turned the cat around so that it faced him. „But they’re so cute! Look at that tiny, fluffy paw!“ He kissed it. „And you know what you’re holding in that paw?“ he asked the cat. „My heart, that’s what you’re holding in your tiny, tiny paw!“ He looked up at Galen. „Can you imagine me kissing the paw of a human? Me neither. And you know why not? Because cats are... are...“

„Fluffy,“ Galen said dryly.

„Regal.“ Melvin sat the creature on the floor where it began to hunt its tail. „They have dignity. Humans on the other hand...“

And how come, Galen suddenly wondered, that of all animals, humans weren’t granted that quality? Horses were admired for it, and apparently, so were cats. Even pigs were treated with respect by the farmers, and with good reason.

 _Alan_ had dignity. Peet had... well, Peet had a certain wildness that substituted for it. He was too ferocious to be humiliated.

Was he?

Galen’s thoughts turned to Urko, and he felt a calm rage mounting inside, steady and relentless like the rising tide.

„I think humans have as much dignity as any other animal,“ he said. „That is, exactly as much as we’re granting them. What does that say about us, Melvin?“

Melvin put his elbows on the table and regarded him steadily, and Galen felt suddenly pinned down by the lawyer’s keen gaze. For the first time since they had entered his house, Melvin gave him his undivided attention. „What is this human to you, old friend? And no, I’m not implying anything indecent.“

For a moment, Galen was at a loss for words. What was the human to _him?_ He was... he was _Zana’s_ human, and her other human’s friend, and he was just trying to help them to get their pet their friend back...

Did he really see Peet as Zana’s pet? She didn’t treat him like one, she treated them like, like people. And they _were_ people. They weren’t apes; but there was no denying that they had distinct personalities, and intelligence, and a complex and varied behaviour.

A memory flashed before his inner eye, Peet crouching behind the corner of an abandoned building in that ruined city, desperately trying to come up with a plan to save Alan; and Peet grumbling about being served gruel in a bucket on Polar’s farm, while saying nothing about being worked to the bone for the sake of Zana’s clumsy boyfriend who had sprained his ankle in the woods...

And then, as if scrolls were tumbling out of their shelves in his father’s library, more memories of Peet in rapid succession, his smiles, his frowns, his jokes, and his complaints (and Mothers, he could complain!). Peet jogging ahead and coming back again, waving his arm to warn them to hide in the underbrush until the patrol had passed-

A strange warmth spread in his chest. If anything about it was unexpected, it was the realization that it had been there for quite some time.

„That human’s name is Peet,“ he said, and calmly returned Melvin’s gaze. „I’m very fond of him. I... I consider him a friend. And I’m not implying anything of the ‘ape’s best friend’ variety.“ He nodded towards Melvin’s cat. One of his cats. „I’m talking of a friendship like the one between me and you.“

Well. That wasn’t completely true. He considered his friendship with Peet to be deeper and truer than his friendship with Melvin. But perhaps Melvin would prove himself to be worthy of closer consideration today. „Will you get me those maps?“

Melvin shook his head and rose with a sigh. „Yes, I will get you your maps, Galen. I already stuck my paw into the _cuca_ , as they say.“ He stopped at his side, putting a hand on his shoulder. „Now I really want to see this remarkable human of yours - one that you made into a _person._

"Dinner is ready, by the way. You should call your entourage downstairs. - Come, my darlings, you’ll get dinner, too, of course!“

He vanished into the corridor to an orchestra of meows, a procession of raised tails bobbing after him. Galen stared at the retreating cat anuses without really seeing them. He drummed his fingers absently on the table.

Yes, he really wanted to see that remarkable human again, too. The one who had become a person to him.

A friend.

* * *

Now that Vanda was back in charge, things were getting marginally better, and Burke was careful to keep her happy by indulging her in her „let’s talk hypotheticals“ games without actually giving anything substantial away. It was a fine line to walk, but Burke thought he was doing it well, to which he invoked his current conditions as proof: he had been given clothes, but they were old and ill-fitting; he was given water, enough to save him from delirium, but scarce enough to keep him perpetually thirsty; and occasionally, a guard threw him a piece of old bread or he was given a bowl of thin gruel. They fed him at irregular times, but he had given up on keeping track of the time long ago. There was just no way he’d be able to recalculate the days after the delirium they had induced by depriving him of everything except the air he breathed.

They were happy with him, but not too happy. They kept him miserable enough to signal him that he wasn’t as compliant as he should be. That... that was good. It meant he was striking the right balance. Now he just had to keep this up long enough...

Long enough for what?

He hadn’t been able to form a plan until now - the assault on his body had just been too overwhelming, and no matter what the religious types claimed, body and mind were an inseparable unity and his cunning, his willpower, and his hope had been drained away with each moment that his body was denied sleep, was denied water, was denied warmth, was denied quiet. Sometimes he’d start trembling even now, just like that, without a reason or any outside trigger. But all in all, things had gotten... not better, but bearable, and now he couldn’t avoid the truth any longer.

The cavalry wasn’t coming.

He didn’t know if he should wish that they had tried to save him and got killed or... or got caught (but Al wouldn’t allow that, he wouldn’t fuck up like that, like him), or that Al had decided from the outset that it would be fucking insane to try and go back to Ape HQ and try to bust him out, and opted for keeping the rest of the troupe safe and out of Urko’s reach. He kinda wished they had at least tried, but if they had tried, then the fact that he was still here _had_ to mean something had gone wrong, and he couldn’t wish for _that,_ but then he’d be back to assuming that his fr... the others had done the rational thing and given up on him, and he wasted precious time with going back and forth between the two options until he was ready to run his head against the wall.

They shouldn’t put themselves at risk for his sake. But god, he _wished_ they had!

Vanda had said that nobody knew where he was, and Burke believed her. And he couldn’t sit this out, the knowledge in his brain wouldn’t become obsolete. Polar and his kid were tilling the fields right now, unaware of the danger circling over them like vultures; Lora was... no idea, probably campaigning for human children getting shoes or something, but she’d hang, too, if her name appeared on Vanda’s list, just because she had known them and not turned them in. Didn’t matter that she had no idea that they were wanted by Urko. Simian totalitarianism was as generous in that regard as its human model.

Katlin... Burke swallowed. Katlin at least would be safe. She had moved deeper into the Forbidden Zone, maybe beyond it, and he had no fucking idea where she was right now. So he wouldn’t be able to tell.

But he wouldn’t mention her name. Just to be sure. He didn’t _want_ to mention the other names, either, but he honestly didn’t know how much longer they’d be content to play twenty questions with him before they’d put the thumbscrews on him... he felt sweat break out all over his body...

He wouldn’t tell on Katlin. Not on her. Never on her.

His heart was hammering hard against his ribs now. The door was thrown open all of a sudden, and two chimps sauntered in.

And behind them, Urko.

_Must’ve developed a nose for him. Smelled him from the corridor..._

The ape eyed him with cold disdain. „Who’s played dress up with the frog again?“ he asked no one in particular.

„Vanda gave them t-“

A chimp smashed his baton against the bars, and Burke jerked back. „Shut up, frog. Nobody allowed you to croak.“

 _Why is he here?_ He had been answering all of Vanda’s questions! There was no reason for Urko to come for him, it made no sense!

 _She_ promised _me! She promised she’d keep him away from me..._

Burke didn’t find the strength to resist when the guards tore the rags from his body, nor when they dragged him up and out into the corridor, and into another room with a... with a round table?

There were leather straps on that table, and now he was digging his heels in without wanting to, not that it made a difference. Human strength was nothing compared to that of an ape.

Urko’s grinning face appeared above him. „We’re gonna play a little game, you and I. I’ve read one of Miss Vanda’s fancy books, and I thought to myself: well, this sounds like fun. Let’s have a little _ride.“_ With the last word, he gave the table a push, and to Burke’s amazement, the tabletop started to move.

_A... a rotating table? Are you fucking serious?_

Relief trembled in his gut. He’d just lie back and relax, then - he had rode out higher _g_ s during training than these apes could crank up mechanically. Granted, he hadn’t been dehydrated, starved, and beaten to a pulp back then...

Well, good thing perhaps, that he hadn’t gotten anything to eat yet - his stomach did get a bit funny now, and his inner ear was protesting that they should stop looping and get back to flying straight ahead.

„I can stop this any time, frog. Just tell me who helped you get through the gates. Yalu?“

And they still accelerated, and now he was beginning to feel the pressure building in his temples and behind his eyes. „I don’... don’t know anyone... with that name.“

_Centrifugal forces. They’re hurling my blood into my head. Are my feet white?_

Maybe he’d get a stroke, if a vein in his brain ruptured under the strain. Already a pounding headache was building up momentum, not the usual kind that you’d get under control with an aspirin and some whiskey, but the migraine, clusterfucking headache that had people jump off buildings, the one that made you puke-

-but he hadn’t eaten anything, so he just convulsed in his restraints and retched, his throat tight to keep his gut from climbing out of his mouth.

„Who gave you food out there? A place to sleep?“

Burke was grateful that he had to stare up at the ceiling, because it was just uniformly dark, but the lamps that sat in the walls had been positioned far enough apart that they were now lighting up at the edge of his vision like a stroboscope on an epilepsy setting. He felt his eyeballs turn upward against his will.

„W-w-we were hunting our... our food... sllept... inthe woods...“

His vision suddenly got tinged pink.

„Faster, boys. That was a game we were playing when I was a boy - swirling rats on a string. Or dead frogs, if you couldn’t catch a rat...“

The veins in his eyes were bursting.

It was the thought of going blind that drove him over the edge, that made him cry out and beg them to stop.

It took a long time for them to stop, and even longer until the world stopped spinning for him. He stumbled between them like a drunkard, blood dripping from his nose and down his chest, while the guards pushed him back and forth between them, in a lazy, half-hearted way as if he wasn’t really worth the effort, all the way back to his cell.

But at least he hadn’t told them anything.

* * *

“... and that will be fourteen _sembles,_ thank you, sir, enjoy your snack, recommend me to your friends and family!“ Galen wrapped a corn husk around the soft nut bread and handed it over the young office worker who had hurried across the plaza to snatch a quick lunch; took the fifteenth tile from the bundle and gave it back, and put the rest in the wooden cash box under the counter.

His next customer was already nudging the young chimp aside. „A fruit roll and two boxes of nut chips with the special dip.“

„One roll, two crispy mixes with special dip coming right up, sir!“ The phrases were rolling from his tongue in the same sing-song that every street vendor since the time of Cesar had been using, and for a moment Galen wondered if it was because the cadences had been hammered into his brain from his earliest childhood on, when he was passing the snack sellers every day on his way to or from school, or if the cart was somehow infesting him with its aura of cheap frying oil and extortionate pricing. He was usually a complete mess when he tried to take on a fake identity. But this...

... this had been Alan’s idea of „surveillance.“ If Galen had secretly harboured romantic notions of lurking nonchalantly in the shadows and smoking a pipe while observing the target, he had been wise enough not to mention them, or to flinch noticeably when Alan gave Melvin a list of supplies he needed for this charade.

Like this stall. And the confectionaries. Alan had wanted to make sure that the „Orva’s Delights“ was well frequented all day, which meant that anything containing meat was out of the question if they wanted to cater to all three races; and so Melvin had vanished into his kitchen for the whole night and manifested - you couldn’t really call it anything else - a cartload of delicacies. Galen had worried that his little enterprise would draw attention for the wide berth people would give it. Instead they were crowding him. The only explanation for it was Melvin’s special dip.

But it did make it hard to keep an eye on the precinct.

Well, Galen reasoned, at least he had managed to determine when the shifts changed - it was when the black uniforms were piling up around his stall. He still expected the face of a certain gorilla to suddenly appear among the chimp faces, and order a nut bread and a salad on the side, but fortunately, that hadn’t happened yet.

„Fuck off, frog, this is not a feedyard!“ There was a sudden commotion among the apes. „If you’re a good boy, maybe I’ll throw you a bit of my sweet roll.“

Galen looked up and into the icy stare of Alan’s eyes, and felt a sudden stab of apprehension, whether from the unabashed eye contact that the human initiated, or his fear that something had upset their carefully staged stakeout, he couldn’t decide. He just knew that he couldn’t let the tussle escalate. „You,“ he ordered, „come here.“

A surprised murmur swept through the throng of customers. Galen ignored them. „What do you want here?“ he asked Alan, still in the same stern voice. „Did your master send you for something to eat? Do you have money?“

Alan, now in his role again with his eyes cast downward, just nodded and held out his palm with a bundle of _sembles_.

„Well, gentlemen,“ Galen raised his voice, „this looks like perfectly good _simian_ money to me. You aren’t suggesting that it belongs to the human who carries it around for his master, do you?“

The murmurs died down as the apes eyed him sheepishly. Galen smiled sweetly at them. „I don’t care which hand holds the money, as long as it ultimately ends up in mine.“

That earned him groans and chuckles and the tension finally dropped. Galen leaned over the counter as if to take Alan’s order. „What are you _doing_ here?“ he murmured.

Alan pointed at a sweet roll. „You need to close your shop, we’re going in,“ he said in an equally low voice.

Galen rolled the nut bread into a cornhusk; the motions were already automatic, although his hands were trembling. „Why now, all of a sudden? You said we’d need to observe them for at least two or three days...“ He handed the roll to Alan and took the money.

„Meet me behind that scribe’s shop,“ the human said when Galen handed him his change; then he melted back into the crowd and was gone.

Galen served out some more snacks, then excused himself by claiming he had run out of his special dip and would be back in half an hour. He drew up the counter and put a sign on the door, then hurried off in the opposite direction from their meeting place; you couldn’t be too careful.

„What went wrong?“ he gasped when he had finally rounded the building.

„Nothing.“ Alan dropped a heavy bundle into his arms. „I just feel we can’t wait any longer if we want to get Pete out alive. Put that on.“ He nodded at the bundle. Galen shook it out and-

„What is... where did you get that?“

It was an officer’s uniform. Galen gaped at it, then at the human. Alan’s face was unreadable. He had worn that expressionless mask since his outburst at the temple, and Galen wondered if he’d ever see anything else but that flat stare from him.

Maybe when they got Peet back.

Galen put on the uniform. Alan hadn’t answered his question.

Just as well. „Now what?“

Alan handed him a rope and turned his back to him. „Now you bring in a runaway slave so that its master can collect it, officer.“

Galen noticed his use of pronoun. He silently tied the human’s hands and wished to be somewhere else. What if one of the officers in the building recognized their favourite snack seller?

But Alan had chosen the time of his intervention well - the precinct was bustling with officers just leaving, and officers of the next shift just arriving, and everyone probably assumed he belonged to the other team, if they spared him a glance at all. Galen silently (and for the first time) thanked his father, who had insisted that he spend three months as an intern here before he had allowed him to switch to law study. At least he would find his way around, and knew enough of their procedures to not attract any attention.

He went through all the motions with his „runaway slave,“ took his fingerprints, filled out the ‘lost/escaped items’ form, estimated Alan’s value (with his colored hair and beard, it went down considerably from what Melvin had offered to pay him, out of Zana’s earshot), and finally, finally led him to the cell block.

They had already passed the first row of cells when another chimp turned the corner, at which point Galen had no choice but to ask his ‘colleague’ to lock up the human because he had forgotten his keys in his locker and no, he couldn’t be arsed to go up and get them, unless you want to hold my human in the meantime? Much easier to just lock the door for me, thanks, mate.

 _„What now?“_ he hissed when the officer had rounded the next corner. „I have no idea how to get you out again! In case you’ve forgotten, I don’t _have_ a locker here!“

 _„Now,_ you complete the mission,“ Alan instructed him, unmoved by his current predicament. „See if they hold Pete in any of the cells here. And try to get a peek into their interrogation rooms while you’re at it. I’m not important enough to warrant Urko’s immediate attention,“ he added in a less acrid tone. „How many slaves do they lead through here every day? And I bet nine times out of ten of the poor bastards aren’t even runaways, but just snatched from the streets to fill a quota,“ he muttered, turning away from the bars. He went to the far side of his cell and stretched out on the bunk. „Come on, officer, get to it!“

With an exasperated huff, Galen turned away. If Alan wasn’t worried about his neck, why in Cesar’s name should he be? That didn’t mean he was able stop worrying about his _own_ neck, though!

But when he came back a little while later, Alan was pacing his cell. The human looked up when he heard him approaching, but didn’t seem to be surprised when Galen shook his head. Peet hadn’t been in any of the cells or interrogation booths.

„Well, I had to make sure,“ was all he said.

„How do we get out now?“ Galen wondered.

Alan lifted a corner of his mouth. „ _You_ just walk out the door. I bet the line of your customers is already reaching across the plaza.“

„It’s Melvin’s special sauce that does the trick.“ Galen sniffed. „How do I get _you_ out, was actually my question.“

„You don’t,“ Alan said simply. „Our asset will turn up as soon as you reach the base, and collect his property.“

It took Galen a moment to translate this into Melvin posing as Alan's owner. „Oh. You - you planned this all in advance?“ He didn’t know if he felt impressed or unsettled by the human’s cunning.

„I had allowed for all possibilities.“ Alan smiled, and this time it was a real smile, and it made Galen shiver.

„It’s what you do when you’re at war.“


	4. Chapter 4

So this time it was Vanda again.

Her lips pressed into a thin line when she saw that he was naked again; her eyes swept over his body, scanning for new bruises, but Urko had been a bright student. Vanda couldn’t see his headache, or the fact that his right eye was still looking through a pink haze, although Burke told himself that it was slowly getting better.

God, it had to be getting better!

He glared at her through the blood in his eye. She had lied to him about Urko... or she wasn’t as powerful as he had thought. Maybe Urko was the top dog around here. In that case, what point was there in complying with her demands? It wouldn’t make a difference in the end.

But her demeanor was cold today. She didn’t send the guard to get some clothes for him.

„You lied to General Urko.“

Burke blinked. „Wha-?“

„You told him that you foraged for food and never had any contact with anyone during your escape, neither human nor ape. That is a lie.“

Burke inhaled slowly, carefully. So now she wasn’t on his side anymore?

Vanda’s expression softened. „You need to admit your mistakes, so we can give you back to the institute. Don’t you want to see your friend again?“

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Burke licked his lips, then tried again. “...no.“

Vanda’s eyes widened. „No?“

He shook his head. „I want him to be free. I don’... don’ wanna see him there. In a cage.“

Vanda eyed him contemplatively, her finger slowly rubbing over her lips. „That is... awkward. See, I thought I had a happy surprise in store for you. Something to reward you with, for your cooperation.“

For a moment, his heart stopped. He could feel it, the sudden silence, the ice spreading from his chest to his limbs.

Vanda nodded, smiling. „We found Alan. Don’t worry, Pete - he’s safe.“

_No. No no no no no_

Vanda turned a page of her ever-growing file. „He is already back at the institute, because he is a rational man.“ She flicked him a wry glance. „I believe he is a bit older than you. Ah yes - here it is: fourteen years older.“ She leaned back and turned the page towards him, so that he could catch a glimpse of their paw-print script. _See, no blank page, I really have notes._

Of course, it could also be her grocery list.

She seemed to have caught on to his doubt, because she turned it back and began to read from it. „According to Colonel Virdon, you left Earth in 2074 to test a new kind of... space-ship,“ she carefully pronounced the word, as if she didn’t really trust the translation, „one that was meant to be the first of a whole fleet of ships meant to bring you to other worlds... circling other suns.“ She let the sheet sink and looked at him. It was like looking into the eyes of a raptor.

„You were indeed the spearhead of an invasion. The stated objective of your mission was to test a technology that would be used to find and _colonize_ new worlds.“ She spread her arms. „Do you like what you’ve found, Pete? Do you think we’d be suitable for _conquest?“_

He just stared at her, unable to form a coherent thought. _How_ did she know of their mission? They hadn’t told Zana, neither he nor Al, he was absolutely cert-

Well... Zana had conducted their interviews separately. So that their statements would be above doubt when she presented them to their superiors, she had explained. What if... what if Al had talked to her in one of those private get-togethers? He _had_ wanted to negotiate... he had even offered them a bit of their technology. Granted, low-tech, but still... the inclination had been there.

_Damn you, Colonel, you should’ve known better!_

„And then I wondered _why_ you’d be so eager to leave your home and go looking for the homes of your neighbour,“ Vanda said, that reptile stare still on him. „You know, that reminds me of scroll 29, verse 6: ‘Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother’s land’. _Are_ you preparing an invasion, Major Burke? Are you rallying support among your kind here, to make a desert of our homes, after you made a desert out of yours? _Answer my question, Major!“_

 _„No! No, we didn’t!_ It’s true, we did test a, a new propulsion technology, but it malfunctioned,“ it didn’t matter that he told her, right, she already knew everything, „we _crashed_ on... on your world,“ oh god, and now he’d almost let slip that they had jumped through time and crashed on _their own_ world, „It was an accident! We never intended to come here! And, and... we can’t go back.“

The weight of that truth slammed into him like a falling mountain, burying him under centuries of despair. _How far_ had they been hurled into the future? „We can’t call for help,“ his throat was tight and his voice sounded pressed and hoarse because of it, „do you really think I’d be here if we could alert our people? They’d have been here months ago to get us out.“ He took a deep breath.

Vanda was watching him.

He had to talk _sense_ into her!

„So why would we try to start a revolt here? These people...“ _Lie, Pete, lie through your teeth if that’s what it takes to get outta here,_ „These humans aren’t like us. They’re... they’re dull and passive, and... and they can’t see you as anything else but their superiors. They ain’t no revolutionaries. Even if we tried, it’d never get off the ground.“

„So you did try, but were disappointed? Who did you try to convince?“ Vanda held up her pen expectantly.

 _„Nobody!“_ Burke exploded. „We tried it on nobody, okay? Listen, we just want to get out of your territory, just, just some place where we won’t bother you...“

Vanda pursed her lips. „I’m afraid that is not what Alan told me. He gave me a list of names, because he realized that he had tried to upset the existing order...“

Ehpah’s still face flashed up in his mind, and Virdon’s calm, deep voice, _We upset the existing order... guess it couldn’t be avoided..._

_They really have him._

Whiteout. No thoughts, just a sensation of hot water being poured over his scalp, down his neck and chest, and a deep, bone-shaking tremor wandering through his body and into his heart, making it stumble, then gallop.

He hadn’t expected to ever feel grief again, climbing and climbing and choking him.

„We know you traveled through Aken’s prefecture.“ Vanda’s voice was hovering around him, inescapable. „We know you met Gres. Did you also meet his human lieutenant? Her name is Katlin.“

_They can’t know about her. Al wouldn’t... he..._

He felt strange. Numb and far away. The light was cold and white, too bright for his eyes. The world was strangely disjointed, as if the present and the past had shattered and the shards were falling back into him in random order.

„What did you and her talk about? Did you sleep with her? You probably didn’t need to encourage her to rebel... or to do the other thing.“

He was staring into the stony face of Urko’s lieutenant. Trying to negotiate Al’s life by offering to save Urko first.

The old soldier stared back at him, unimpressed. „Always assume they’re lying. Saves time.“

That’s what he’d said, right?

Right.

The wave retreated. In his head, silence.

Burke breathed.

„You don’t have Al.“

Relief was a wide plain, an unbroken horizon.

Open sky.

He smiled at Vanda. „I always assume you’re lying. Saves time.“

Vanda capped her pen with a click. „I really regret this, Pete. I wish this had ended differently.“

He took another breath. „No, that’s okay.“

_If it only ends now._

* * *

Zaius still questioned the wisdom of his decision to let Urko visit him in his own home when the Gorilla was already knocking on his door. Orangutans were solitary creatures; only the devotion to the Lawgiver’s Word, and the knowledge that apekind needed their wisdom and guidance, drove them out of their gated communities every day, into a world of constant social interaction that was profoundly opposed to their instincts.

Home was sanctuary. And now he’d let _Urko_ invade it.

At least he’d have to knock this time.

„I already thought you’d changed your mind and sneaked out the back door,“ Urko grumbled as he pushed past him. „Don’t worry, I won’t stay long. Just need to clear up some things.“

„And those things couldn’t have been cleared up in my office?“ Zaius closed the door behind him and followed him into his living room. Gorillas traditionally preferred to live on the ground, but if Urko felt uncomfortable about the height and open walls of Zaius’ tree home, he didn’t show it. He moved as if he had studied the layout of Zaius’ abode before.

No, Urko was much too impulsive for that. Zaius shook off that unsettling thought and gestured for Urko to sit down. This time, though, the Gorilla shook his head when he offered him flint and steel, and Zaius pocketed both without a word.

„So, how many more extensions do you plan to grant that little macaque?“ Urko asked without preamble.

„I thank you for not using that language in my house, General,“ Zaius said mildly. You couldn’t really stop the Gorilla when he indulged in one of his rages, but it helped if you laid down the rules early. Zaius was careful to always establish his rules inside his territories. With Urko, he had to do it every time the general entered the room. It was exhausting and entertaining at the same time.

Urko just bared his teeth in a mixture of amusement and annoyance, and continued as if Zaius hadn’t said anything. „Five days! She promised us results in five days! Then she asked for an extension, and then another one, and I’m sure she’s already scratched at your door again, and this time, you’ll tell her she won’t get another one, or...“

For a long moment, the men just stared at each other.

It was true, Zaius remembered, Vanda had come to him earlier - had visited him in his _office_ , as manners demanded. She had been livid.

„The general is constantly interfering with my process, he’s debilitating the subject so that it’s unable to interact with me in our sessions... or even _react_ to stimuli - I have to waste precious time just to nurse it back to a state where we can continue our work. No, sir, scratch that - I can’t _continue_ my work, I have to retread the last five steps and begin anew. And anew. And anew.“

She had paced the room, all former deference to his age and title buried under professional rage. „And what’s worse, the subject’s progress has become completely unpredictable! It is compliant in one session, then Urko barges in, brutalizes it, and when I get it back the next time, it’s either in a stupor, or distrustful and obstinate! And we haven’t even completed stage one!“

„I had thought that stage one was about breaking the prisoner,“ Zaius had remarked, „and that Urko would be exactly the right lever.“

Vanda snorted. „He’s crude, he’s unable to control or gradate his violence, and he’s unable to take orders. Especially from me.“ She turned around to face him. „So I was hoping he’d at least take them from you.“

Zaius shook his head. „The Chief General has reached a position where he doesn’t have to take orders from a lot of people anymore. And he’s doing everything in his power to remove those last stopping blocks, too.“ He smiled wryly. „Which is where you come in, my dear Vanda. Don’t let him frustrate you - and don’t let him suspect that you’re anything else but an eager, young scientist.“

Looking at Urko now, Vanda had been successful with that, at least - Urko’s wrath was reserved solely for him. „Are you threatening me, General?“

Urko leaned back and regarded him with a thoughtful expression. „Am I?“ His flat tone echoed that of Zaius.

 _Unfortunately for you, Urko, I can still read you._ Behind that mask of indifferent appraisal simmered a dangerous mix of ambition and rage.

It was the rage that Zaius couldn’t understand.

„I found it beneficial to let Vanda experiment with different approaches, and you have to admit that her results so far are encouraging, especially when we consider that she had to remedy the consequences of some of your, shall we say, more enthusiastic contributions.“

Urko snorted; Zaius ignored him and dug into the pocket of his robe to retrieve his pipe and tobacco pouch. „She assured me she’s making good progress,“ he continued as he packed his pipe.

„Progress towards what goal?“ Urko snapped. „We still don’t have names, or confirmations about names your little side project had collected!“

„The Cesarian Intelligence Agency belongs to the Simian Guard, Urko,“ Zaius pointed out. _„Your_ people, not mine.“

Urko leaned forward, a dangerous glint in his eyes. „Don’t try to play me for a fool, Eldest,“ he said softly. „We both know whose idea that was. They’re _your_ creatures, sent to undermine my organization. Well, they can try.“ He closed his fist. „They can try, and we’ll enjoy squashing them like the bugs they are.“

„Your organization,“ Zaius said slowly. „I think you are mistaken about some things, Chief General. The Guard serves our society, and you serve the Guard. Not the other way round.“

„I want the human,“ Urko said, in the flat, even voice of someone who hung onto his self-control by his fingertips. „I want the human, and I want the names of everyone who helped that human. And I will get those names, no matter if I have to beat, burn, or cut them out of that creature.“ He rose. „And you’ll give it to me, or by Cesar, I’ll root out your secret police to the last sniveling Chimp hussy, and then I’ll come for you.“

He didn’t bother to close the door behind him.

* * *

They still didn’t let him sleep, but by now he had learned to sleep with his eyes open. Fool the monkeys.

It wasn’t real sleep; more a haunted state of utter exhaustion, like a light dimmed down to a ghostly glow. Inside that light, Burke was wandering the winding roads of dreams and memories until the two dissolved into each other.

He’s back in Al’s backyard, the night before lift-off. They’re having a barbecue, and he explains the Hasslein field to Chris. When the kid is in bed, Sally returns with a bottle of Al’s aftershave and begins to spray it on Al, vowing to put his _Tobacco_ -soaked shirt into the freezer until he returns, so she’ll have something that smells like him when she feels lonely. She’s tipsy, and teary, and Pete leaves when she demands that her husband take off his shirt.

He can smell it now, that aftershave, and the smell is so strong and so real that he’s convinced that Al has found him, finally. He’s here, and he’s gonna get him out and they’ll return to the backyard and have another beer.

His eyes opened to blackness. Blackness and the smell of piss.

Exhaustion had settled so deep in his bones that he didn’t even feel despair at the realization. He just wished Vanda would finally make true on her word and end this now. That’s what she had said, right?

He couldn’t remember... not exactly. He _thought_ she’d said it, but... but he was too tired, and there were chunks missing from his memory. All those interrogation sessions had bled into one another, an endless string of questions, always the same questions in endless variations; sometimes asking about hypothetical scenarios, and hell knew what kind of psych eval Vanda was cooking up from his answers... sometimes blunt, yelled at him... that was Urko. Urko was...

Maybe he could frustrate that black menace enough, so that the monkey would kill him.

Burke exhaled heavily and let his head drop back against the slimy wall. His heart was racing, urging him to get up and run, run, run.

But the only road open to him now was the one winding into an even deeper darkness.

Heavy boots coming down the corridor outside his door. Stopping at his door. His heart was trembling now. Burke tried to sit up straighter, bracing himself against the wall, against what was coming through that door.

It would be Urko. He was sure of that, at least.

 _Need to provoke him. Remember that._ He was shaking now, he couldn’t control his reactions anymore. _I don’t wanna die..._

_But I have to._

They dragged him into the room with the spinning table, and for a moment Burke thought they’d try to swirl his brain once more, as if the centrifugal force could shove the answers out of his ears, but the guards let go of him as soon as they were inside, and took up position at the door.

For a long while, Urko said nothing. The silence stretched between them, heavy and patient, filled with dark promises. Maybe Urko was waiting for him to break down, unable to bear the tension. But Burke was too exhausted to feel afraid.

„I can end this nicely for you, if you cooperate,“ Urko said at last, and Burke felt his heart skip a beat. So this was it, this was it, that damn monkey was as tired of their game as he was, and all he needed was a last nudge, just one more show of defiance. Push him over the edge, and he’d end this for him, nicely or not, but he’d be _done._

„I already told you everything I know, and everything I _don’t_ know, too, Urko. Just accept it already - we were smart enough to escape and survive on our own. We need no damn monkeys to help us along!“ His voice breathy and hoarse, rattling like dead reeds.

Urko’s eyes narrowed at the slur, and Burke braced himself for the gorilla’s fist to come down on him like a hammer; but the ape just smiled, a tiny twitch of his lips.

„So you think you’re smart.“ The smile deepened. „Tell you what - you’re not. If you were smart, you’d have given me what I want, and I’d have told Orlen here to put a bullet through your head.“ He pushed off from the table and sauntered towards him, and Burke planted his feet more firmly on the ground to keep himself from backing away.

„I’d have given him a sign... just lifting a finger, like so... and he’d have shot you from behind. You never would’ve seen it coming.“ Urko shrugged. „Of course now that little favour is expired, but you can still have that bullet. Who hid you from my patrols? Who gave you food, or helped you in any other way?“

_Just give him some names... don’t have to be real names..._

But what if his made-up names really existed? Or were close enough versions of names of apes and humans living in those regions they had traveled through? They’d be jailed and interrogated just like him, and end up hanging... for a crime they hadn’t even committed.

Burke closed his eyes for a moment. He wanted that bullet, wanted it even more than water, more than sleep, more than the clear, blue sky. He wanted to fall into the darkness between the stars.

He opened his eyes.

„Go fuck yourself.“

_Now..._

Now the world was just a ringing in his ears and a flickering darkness at the edges of his vision, and the only clear and steady thing was Urko’s face, staring at him like a stony demon, then dissolving into a white, gleaming grin.

„Now that is a really creative idea!“ He nodded at the guards behind Burke. „Put him on the table. No, not like last time.“

His captors hesitated, though their grip around his arms didn’t lessen.

„Face down.“

_oh shit oh shit oh no oh shit oh please no_

Something made a splintering sound behind him.

„I’m all for keeping this hole as clean as possible, but once you have humans in the house, the only way to really clean it is to burn it to the ground, so - I think nobody’s going to miss that broom.“

A wave of nausea climbed from his gut into his throat, clogging his sinuses and making his mouth water. He tore at the restraints, cold sweat pouring over his body. He could feel the gorilla lean on the table’s edge behind him.

„Now this broomstick has a smooth and a splintered end, and it’s pretty dark in here, so I have to warn you that I can’t tell beforehand which end it’ll be.“

This wasn't happening, it wasn't happening it wasn't

_„I’ll tell ya, I’ll tell ya, please don’t please no all the names I’ll give you all the names please don’t PLEASE-“_

* * *

„If he’s not in prison, where should we even begin to look?“ Zana closed her fist around the tiny wooden figurine. „Peet could be _anywhere._ And we could be searching for him forever!“ She heard her voice tremble and swallowed her next words. She didn’t want Alan to hear the tears in her throat.

_He’ll be long dead before we find him - if we ever find him at all._

She stared at Peet’s pendant in her hand. The horse head had been his gift to Katlin, the human resistance leader that had saved her and Alan’s lives. Katlin had given it back to him, hoping that one day, he’d find his way back to her. Zana brushed her fingers over the wooden mane and fought the irrational urge to burn an incense stick for the thing to bribe it into leading her to Peet, as if it was an idol of some obscure human deity.

When she looked up, she found herself caught in Alan’s gaze. But his eyes were thoughtful, a hazy gray, not the icy stare she had come to avoid over the last week.

„Did you study the maps Melvin brought you?“ he asked.

Zana nodded with a sigh. „Yes, but there are so many places they could use! After the humans had set fire to the city, almost everything had to be rebuilt. And Zuval was all for returning to the proper simian ways, so almost all cellars were filled up or closed, and they planted the groves instead.“

Alan’s eyes narrowed. „What are you trying to tell me?“

Zana nervously rubbed her thumb over the horse head’s nostrils. „I can’t tell, just from looking at the map, which cellars have just been bricked up, and which have been filled up to the ceiling with soil and debris. Even if I had any idea which place Urko could have chosen, it could be that we wouldn’t be able to even access it. And then we’d have to try the next place. And the next.“ And we just don’t have the time for that, but she didn’t say it aloud; she saw the understanding in the human’s eyes.

„There must be a paper trail somewhere, even if it’s confined to an inner circle,“ Alan said. „They will report to Urko, at least, and probably to Zaius, too. And they can’t exist in complete isolation - there will be guards who go home after work, and they’ll need food and water... and maybe a medic, now and then.“

Zana felt a chill brushing her arms and neck at his last words.

„So what do you suggest?“

She turned around and smiled weakly at her fiancé, who had closed the door behind him and now came over to her to quickly put a hand on her shoulder. Galen was still selling Melvin’s delicacies on the plaza before „Urko’s lair,“ as he called it; Alan had insisted that he keep up his street vendor identity, so that the police wouldn’t immediately connect his appearance and equally sudden disappearance with Alan’s assault on one of their officers. Even if the man reported the theft of his uniform, they probably wouldn’t suspect the Chimp who was still out there, selling sweet rolls and fruit salads for a quick lunch.

Alan leaned back and regarded him coolly. It was uncanny how his demeanour changed while he was focused on their mission. Zana could see now how he had been a soldier among his own people, wherever they might live in that black void between the stars. And judging by his demeanour, he had been a leader, an officer, not just a simple soldier. Zana felt at once awed and unnerved by that thought. It was just too reminiscent of the reports from the Strays’ Revolt - the human streak of violence only ever lay in a light slumber, ready to be awakened at the slightest provocation. Paired with human cunning, it turned the dumb and docile beasts into raging predators that killed indiscriminately and burned down everything in their path.

But right now, she hoped that human cunning would find a way to save Peet, because she was at the end of her rope. Her head was empty, and a dull headache had settled behind her eyes.

„That depends on the information you could gather today,“ Alan finally said.

Galen’s hand slipped off her shoulder, and he sat down on the chair next to her with a heavy thump and a tired sigh. „Well, ‘Orva’s Delights’ is now offering a delivery service, bringing Mango Miracles and Crispy Mixes With Orva’s Secret Dip directly to your desk.“ He bent down to take off his shoes. „I walked from here to the Iron Mountains and back today - several times. But I could listen in to the office gossip.“

„Did they say anything about Peet?“ She didn’t want to get her hopes up, but... maybe...

Galen shook his head. „Nothing at all. Urko is really keeping this under wraps. I doubt they even know about it.“

Another dead branch. Zana tried not to give in to her growing despair.

„Did they mention the assault on one of their officers?“ Alan wanted to know, and Galen raised his brows.

„Surprisingly enough, no. Maybe he was about to go on a holiday and isn’t expected back yet. What _did_ you do to him, anyway?“

Alan ignored the question. „Did you find out where Urko’s office is?“

Galen exchanged a worried glance with her, but nodded. „It’s on the second floor, with all the interrogation booths. Apparently, Urko likes to keep an eye on things there. Or... or lend a helping hand.“ He grimaced.

„Is Urko away for longer periods of time? Or at unusual hours?“

If everything else failed, they would have to follow the general, without being noticed - without being led into a trap. Zana didn’t feel up to that, not at all, especially since Alan wouldn’t be there with them to help; he wouldn’t be able to blend in completely, being a human.

Galen hesitated. „I did learn his _usual_ office hours - I pretended to have a delivery for him. Luckily, he wasn’t there - Mothers know what would've happened if I had stuck my head in there to deliver a nut roll.“

„Are you out of your mind?“ Zana was shocked. „Urko would’ve recognized you at once, no matter what costume you were wearing!“

„Well, we’re running out of time, aren’t we?“ Galen said defensively. „I didn’t want to come back empty-handed.“

„That was excellent, Galen. You showed initiative and gathered important information.“ Alan leaned forward, and Zana shuddered at the glint in his eyes. The excitement in them reminded her a bit too much of Urko. Her apprehension deepened when he smiled at both of them.

„I’m afraid your workday hasn’t ended yet, officer.“

* * *

“... and then it _ripped_ my purse right out of my hand, and it _pushed_ me to the ground and _raced_ away! _And_ I think it had accomplices!“ Zana hoped the tremor in her voice would be taken as a sign of shock over being the victim of a robbery, and not as panic. Galen’s hand was clasped around her upper arm in a gallant pose of an officer gently leading his charge to a quieter desk where he could take her statement and perhaps offer her a glass of water to calm her down.

He was filling the role quite well, or maybe it was the uniform that did it. Zana silently apologized to Lora for teasing her about the appeal of men in uniform - and right now, she was glad that Galen’s costume also shielded her from nosy questions; nobody even spared them a glance. Apparently, being assaulted by a human on the streets wasn’t such a rare occurrence.

That was a worrying realization, actually. She just didn’t have the emotional capacity to feel upset about it now on top of everything else.

She had to pause on the steps to the second floor, suddenly out of breath. Galen still had dropped his hand and kept a professional distance, but now he turned around and descended the few steps he had been ahead of her. „Are you alright, Miss?“ His voice was sober and professional, but his eyes were worried.

„I’m... fine,“ Zana wheezed. „Just... let me catch my breath.“

She still hadn’t told him. She should really tell him.

The second floor was silent. „I thought you said they have interrogation rooms here,“ Zana whispered. „Shouldn’t we hear them talk?“

„The rooms are pretty soundproof, from what I’ve heard,“ Galen whispered back, and Zana resolutely refused to contemplate the reason for insulating those rooms. They crept along the corridor towards Urko’s office; Zana’s fur was standing on end despite her efforts to stay calm.

One of the doors to the interrogation rooms opened with a sudden clang, and Galen whirled around and pinned her to the wall, shielding her from the eyes of whoever had stepped out into the corridor.

 _„It’s Nelva!“_ she heard his panicked whisper against her ear.

Urko’s lieutenant! He had let them go in the ruined human city, keeping his word and protecting his honor, but that truce had long since expired; and he knew both of them!

She slung her arm around Galen’s neck and tried to giggle. „Why, officer, you said you’d only take my _statement!_ What are you _doing?“_

He buried his face in her fur, perhaps to muffle his voice. „Strip search, honey.“

The steps stopped right behind Galen’s back, and they both froze.

_That was a stupid idea, he’s theoretically Galen’s superior, and this isn’t professional conduct, and it’s against regulations and he seemed to be from the old guard when I met him and he’ll probably court-martial Galen right here in the corridor..._

_„Mothers!_ Find a room, you two, and you, son, don’t come sobbing on my boots when you've knocked her up!“

Galen shoved her into the next interrogation chamber, using the salute to conceal his face. „No, sir, thank you, sir!“

The cell was just big enough for a table and two chairs. Zana sunk into one of them and laid her head on the tabletop. She felt utterly exhausted. „I’ll never, ever do something like this again! That was _Nelva_ \- how in the world did he escape Urko's wrath? When they brought him Peet, Urko must've known immediately that Nelva had lied to him...“

„Oh, I thought my reparteé was quite good,“ Galen said innocently. „And you’d do this in a heartbeat for Peet. Or Alan.“ He opened the door a tiny crack and peered out. „All clear. Let’s sneak in before Nelva comes back. As curious as I am about how he kept his position, I'm not going to wait around to ask him.“ He slipped out the door without waiting for her.

She caught up with him at Urko’s door. „It’s locked!“ he whispered, his former nonchalance evaporated.

Zana held up her lock picks with a wry smile. „Don’t worry, dear, I found these in Peet’s backpack.“

Galen eyed them skeptically. „But do you know how to use them?“

She bent down to inspect the lock. „Peet showed me; and this time, I have someone to watch my back...“

It was easier than she had thought - if Kuma hadn’t so brutally interrupted her back at the HLF’s headquarters, she would’ve been able to get Lora out. It was a belated satisfaction, but it filled her with enough vigor to stride to Urko’s desk and start rifling through his papers without hesitation, while Galen kept watch at the door.

It was discouraging; although Urko apparently wasn’t big on writing reports, he was fond of receiving them, judging by the sheer number of them; and as Chief General, he also received them from the other districts. Someone (that someone not being Urko, Zana suspected) did take care to at least file them correctly, so she could focus on reports that had originated in the City itself.

Unless they kept Peet somewhere outside the city gates.

Zana froze for a moment when that thought hit her; then she resumed scanning the city reports. It was no use to drop them and start searching through the reports regarding the outer districts; she would only scatter her energy and waste precious time. She’d turn to them, if the city files didn’t yield any results. Still, the possibility that she was looking in the wrong direction had lodged itself in her mind now and kept niggling at her thoughts.

„You are a pretty convincing officer of the law, dear,“ she remarked, trying to divert her thoughts to something less disturbing. „Is it the uniform, or did you just discover your thespian talent, after all?“

„You won’t believe it, but selling sweet rolls to the ape on the street was a strangely liberating experience,“ Galen said absently, still keeping his eyes on the corridor.

„Galen, just lock that door and help me go through Urko’s notes,“ Zana said impatiently. „That man’s script is almost indecipherable.“

Galen obeyed, and for a while, the only sound in the room was the rustling of paper.

„Your skills of acting and camouflage are nothing to be laughed at, either,“ Galen finally remarked. Zana stilled, not fooled by his casual tone. „When I first saw you at Melvin’s, I almost didn’t recognize you,“ he continued, opening another folder.

„The only difference was a rolled-up blanket under my robe,“ Zana said, straining to keep her voice equally casual. „I wouldn’t have thought that the sight of a big belly would shock you that much.“

„It wasn’t the size, but the implications,“ Galen murmured, and Zana felt her face go hot.

„Are you worried you could’ve ‘knocked me up’ as your superior officer so charmingly put it?“ she snapped.

Galen frowned and let the paper sink to stare at her. „He’s not really my superior officer, and yes, I do happen to think that a pregnancy would be a problem, considering our situation.“

„I’m glad to know that you’d regard our baby as problematic.“ Zana opened the next folder with more force than necessary, but the paper didn’t rustle nearly loud enough to convey her fury and embarrassment.

She had considered abortion. More than once, ever since she had been sure. She _knew_ her state was endangering her friends - and hadn’t the events since then proven that to be true in the most horrendous way? - and probably endangering herself, and the baby inside her, but... but she hadn’t known how to tell the others in the first place, and she’d had no idea how to sneak away to a temple of the Mothers without telling them, and she had been afraid of the procedure itself, and...

... and she felt like crying every time she contemplated losing that tiny life, that incredible combination of Galen and herself, at once their continuation and someone who had never existed before and would never exist again in that form, a flower blooming only once in all eternity.

She just couldn’t do it. And that meant that sooner or later, Galen would have to know. She had tried to anticipate his reaction, but had shied away from that fantasy again and again, because it had begun to shape up to something very much like this now.

„I don’t... I very much want to be the father of your children some day, Zana.“ Galen sounded exasperated, and nervous, and the rustling of his papers had become more rapid, and louder, too. „But you have to admit that under the circumstances, a pregnancy would be dangerous to you and the child... not to mention to the rest of us. What if there’s a complication while we’re on the road? Or running from one of Urko’s patrols? What if you go into labour prematurely? Women have _died_ in childbed, even with midwives and priests of The Mothers clustering around their bed!“

„Well, thank you for your concern, Galen! I’ll make sure to sleep on the other side of the fire from now on, so that no accidents can happen!“ Zana hoped her tone would discourage any more sensible arguments from Galen, arguments she had gone over in her mind countless times.

It seemed to work; the silence in the room was suffocating.

„I’d do this in a heartbeat for you, too,“ she murmured. There still was nothing in Urko’s notes about Peet. Nothing at all.

„Do what for me?“ Galen asked after another long stretch of silence.

„Dress up and sneak into Urko’s lair to find you,“ Zana said in an even lower voice.

She startled when he suddenly hugged her from behind. „I know, love,“ he whispered in her ear. „And I’d carry you on my back all the way from here to the Iron Mountains if I’d knocked you up. You, and your gigantic belly.“

Zana closed her eyes for a moment, savouring the warmth flooding her body. She reached behind herself to cup his head in her hand for a moment-

\- and felt him stiffen against her back. „Zana, look!“ he whispered. She opened her eyes and half turned to him; he gestured over her shoulder at the note she was holding.

„I know where they’re keeping Peet. Look!“

* * *

Urko wasn’t a patient man under the best of circumstances, but he had learned to at least keep that fire blazing inside, and to let it only leap to the surface when it served his purpose. Today, though, he felt the iron grip of his will slip again and again, so much so that he even pushed away from his desk and began to pace the office. Once or twice he stopped at the door, fighting the urge to throw it open and peer down the corridor.

She had to turn up sooner or later.

He managed to be seated at his desk when she finally strode through the door, fur bristling with rage. Urko pretended to be engrossed in a report, even signing it and laying it aside before he deigned to acknowledge Vanda’s presence.

„What have you done to my prisoner?“ she snarled.

Urko leaned back in his chair and flared his nostrils as he fought down a grin. _„Your_ prisoner?“

„He’s completely unresponsive!“ Vanda slapped her palm on his desk. „I had to call a medic to treat his injuries, and _Mothers,_ I wouldn’t have pegged you as a zoophile!“ The look of disgust seemed to mask other expressions lurking in her eyes - disdain, and recognition, as if she had expected something like this from him. From a Gorilla.

_We all know what you’re doing to your cows when nobody’s looking..._

Urko felt his good mood evaporate in a hot flame of fury and embarrassment. „Use that word again and I’ll make sure they won’t ever find your body.“ His voice was a low growl, strangled in the grip of his self-control. „I did what was necessary to break its resistance - something _you_ didn’t manage with all your fancy experiments.“

Vanda wasn’t fazed by his threat. „The only reason that my process didn’t work as predicted is that you were constantly interfering with it! I’ll make _sure_ to include your sabotage in my report to the council! I’ve already put in a request to transfer custody of the subject exclusively to me! Maybe I’ll be able to reset the subject and start from the beginning... after I mopped up the mess you left!“

That little macaque felt too protected, too secure from her position in Zaius’ lap. Probably rode it every day, too - everyone knew of Zaius’ predilection for Chimp girls. Urko idly wondered if he should visit Zana’s father one of these days, and have a little chat with the old fool about his daughter and her mentor.

But right now, there were more interesting matters to discuss.

His good news were so much more satisfying now, even more than they had been this morning when he had sauntered into his office. „Good luck with your request - but after I’ve presented my _results,_ they’ll kick your scrawny ass down the stairs, and throw your little book after you, too.“ He sniffed with amusement when she narrowed her eyes.

„What are you talking about?“

Satisfaction was a warm glow in his belly now, an amber sun radiating into his chest and throat. He allowed that sunny smile to spread over his face. „After Burke had stopped squealing like a pig, he threw out a list of names faster than poor Orlen was able to write them down. Stumbled over his own tongue in his haste to please me. You know...“ He grinned. „Give a little, get a little. Give a lot...“ He reached for the list that he had copied from Orlen’s scribble - copied it twice, to be sure it didn’t get lost somewhere - and handed it to her nonchalantly. He kept his gaze trained on her face as she scanned the list.

Vanda’s expression changed from shocked, to dismayed, to absolutely expressionless. She read it a second time, more slowly, before she carefully put it on his desk. „Congratulations, General. I’m impressed.“

Urko smiled, torn between the urge to drive home his triumph a second time, and the urge to let her off easily, now that he had restored his superiority. „Well, your approach was at least entertaining - and that’s the privilege of youth, right? To try out new things...“

„You misunderstand, General - you managed to be played for a fool by a _human._ A severely compromised human, to boot. That’s an impressive feat.“ She sardonically clapped her hands, and Urko felt the sun in his gut turn cold.

„What in the white wastes are you talking about, woman?“

Vanda snatched the paper up again and began to read in the same flat voice: „Elmer Fudd... Mu-ha-mad-al-ee... Teh... Teh-cum-sah...“ She let the page sink and stared at him, and her eyes were blazing with a ferocious glee that burned itself into his heart like molten iron. „Those aren’t even _names!“_

She crumpled the paper into a tight ball and flicked it onto his desk. „Torture doesn’t give you answers, General - that’s what I’ve been saying all along, but you wouldn’t listen, because you _enjoy_ it too much. But interrogation isn’t about you and your personal entertainment! It’s about getting results, _valid_ results, and your crude fumbling didn’t just fail to produce them, it may well have closed that channel for good! Anyone subjected to pain will tell you _anything, anything at all_ just to make the pain stop. This crap is worse than useless!“

A hot flood of humiliation drove him to his feet. „The names on that list _are_ valid!“

Vanda scoffed. „Are they? Good luck finding... what was his name? King Kong!“ She turned around to leave, but stopped in the doorway. „I expect to get an answer from the council this afternoon. After what I’ve learned here, I’m really optimistic that you won’t lay a hand on my prisoner again.“

Urko stared at the door for a long time, waiting for the roaring in his ears to subside.

Then he grabbed his helmet and called for Orlen. They didn’t have much time.


	5. Chapter 5

The human jerked back and pressed its back into the wall when Urko stormed into its cell, but he wasn’t in the mood for games today. Well, that wasn’t exactly true, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to stop himself in time, and speaking of time... Vanda had just warned him that this commodity was rapidly running out, too.

Today, he needed results without a lot of fuss. And since the little _kak-_ thrower had alerted Zaius’ inner circle now, too, he needed results without leaving visible traces on the frog.

Too bad - yesterday had been a lot of fun.

But as the Chimp had pointed out, this wasn’t for his personal entertainment... not today. Urko crouched down and grabbed a fistful of sweat-soaked fur. The human’s eyes rolled back, showing only the whites.

„You gave me a list of names last time,“ Urko growled. „Let’s go over the names again.“ He gave the human’s head an encouraging shake when no answer came. The creature’s body was shaking in his grip, muscles hard like wood. Maybe that was the reason it didn’t speak - its jaw was locked in the same rigor. Vanda would probably stroke its fur to calm it down.

Urko found himself scanning the cell for the broomstick. His eyes fell on the piss bucket instead.

It was empty - judging by the stink, the human didn’t bother with crawling to the bucket anymore, but simply soiled itself instead. Didn’t matter, Urko had another use for the bucket in mind. He sent Orlen to fill it with water and get some ropes.

„You need a bath, Burke, you stink something fierce,“ he said conversationally, while Orlen tied the human’s hands behind its back. It had begun to stammer as soon as his aide had turned it on its belly, but its voice was too weak and unsteady to make out the words. Urko grinned and grabbed its scalp again to lift up its head.

„What’s that you’re saying? You liked what we did last time? Huh? Want me to give it to you again?“ The human jerked back and began to struggle against his grip, and Urko chuckled. „Now come on, it wasn’t that bad! And, you know, it gets easier the more you do it... you’ll get used to it and with time, you’ll like it...“

Orlen coughed and Urko growled with irritation, but his aide was right - as much as he enjoyed this, they just didn’t have the time. He let go of the human’s scalp and ruffled its fur with fake joviality. „I really regret that I can’t satisfy you today, but we have work to do, and I’m in a terrible hurry. So I suggest you just give me what I want, and I promise I’ll leave you alone. What do you say, hm?“

The human’s breath came in rapid, wheezing sobs, but it tried to speak, so Urko waited patiently for it to get a grip. „Wh... what... doyou... wannaknow?“

„The names, Burke,“ Urko repeated, careful to make his voice soft and unthreatening. „You gave me a list of names, and I want you to repeat them.“

“... why?“

„I’m the one asking the questions here.“ He allowed himself to growl this time, and the human tensed up. „The names.“

He watched Burke’s throat work as the human tried to swallow. „L...Lincoln... Eisenhower... D-Davy Crockett... uh...“

„Go on.“

Silence. „I... I can’t remember,“ the human finally whispered. „C-can’t remember lots of things...“

Urko breathed in. Slowly, gently, through the nose. He filled himself up with air until he felt as if his chest would explode. Then breathed out again, just as slowly, just as carefully.

„None of these names are on my list, Burke. Not. A. Single. One of them.“

„Maybe, maybe I... forgot... forgot them... last time.“ The human was shaking.

„Or maybe you lied to me.“

The silence was deeper somehow. It took Urko a moment to realize that the human was holding its breath.

Vanda had been right.

Urko felt a tremor waking up deep inside, growing and rising like one of the big quakes that shook the Forbidden Zones until this day. It was rising upward, roaring in his ears, shivering down his arms and rising his fur like the air did before a thunderstorm.

They had run out of time. In a moment, he would crush that creature’s skull in his hand like an egg. He could already feel the bone breaking under his fingers, could feel them dig into the soft mass beneath it...

„Orlen, bucket.“

He had to be fast now, had to outrun his rage. Urko yanked the human up to its knees by the hair on its head, ignored its yelp and tore the bucket from Orlen with his free hand.

„You’ll give me the names now, the _real_ names, or I’ll drown you like a dog.“ Or maybe he’d drown it anyway, he was in the mood for it.

And maybe he had held it under water for a bit longer than necessary, until the frantic kicking weakened and paused, but he did pull it out in time, after a prompt from Orlen, and he did manage to wait until the retching and coughing and sobbing had subsided a bit.

„The names.“ His voice was alien even to him now.

The human lay there, on its side, its flanks pumping, its gaze wandering aimlessly, landing everywhere except on him. When it finally spoke, Urko had to crouch down to catch its words.

„Goddamn, Urko,“ Burke whispered. „What... what would your mom say... if she could see you now?“

Urko blinked.

„My mother,“ he said slowly. How did that creature know about his mother?

„My mother would cheer me on. She’d lay one hand on my back, and with her other one, guide my hands as they cut you open and dig out your guts... like the humans cut her open and dug out the baby inside her. Like they smashed my brother’s head against the barn door so that his brain was smeared all over the wood.“ A wave of nausea shook him, an old, long forgotten terror, as the image flicked up in his mind, as sharp and real as if it had just happened a moment ago.

„I was hiding in the well, deep down, digging my fingers into the mud between the stones, and I heard them scream far above me.“ He didn’t know what he was saying, he was lost in the smell of blood, and smoke. „They’re still screaming, but I know how to make it stop.“ He gently stroked the human’s face with his fingers. „When I kill one of you filthy beasts, they’re silent. They’re... _content.“_ He exhaled slowly, the rage seeping out of him like black oil. „Until they get restless again. But that’s the only good thing about your ilk: there’s never a shortage of humans, so I’ll never run out of kills.“

The human was silent for a long time, but it had stopped shaking, too. It looked... thoughtful.

„Y’know,“ it said finally, its voice hoarse and broken, „I had a pretty shitty childhood, too, but I still don’t go around torturing kittens.“

Urko rose; it felt good to stretch his legs. „You’ll go on a little trip now, Burke.“ He was done. He was done, and he didn’t want to see this damn creature anymore, and he wouldn’t leave it to Vanda, either. No, that little louse-eater wouldn’t get to play with the human anymore. He was the Chief General of the Simian Guard: this prison was his, and this prisoner was his, too, to do with it as he saw fit. „There’s a doctor waiting for you - he wants to cut up your skull and dig around in your brain a bit. Maybe you’ll survive it, maybe you won’t. If you survive it, you’ll be a vegetable, so if I was you, I’d hope he’ll rip a big vein in there while he’s searching for your soul.“

„That’s alright,“ Burke whispered. „’s alright, either way.“ It took Urko a moment to identify the human’s expression.

It looked at peace.

* * *

„You know, when I told Galen that I wanted to play a bigger part in this little adventure than just whipping up Mango Miracles in my kitchen, I wasn’t exactly thinking of crawling through a hedge in my second best hunting suit.“ Melvin was surprisingly agile for an ape of his size, and except for a slight wheezing, didn’t make any sound; Virdon was beginning to believe him that he actually did hunt on his father’s estate. At least he didn’t endanger their scouting mission by snapping every dry twig in his path, like Galen.

If something would give them away, it was the smell of cat urine that hung in the ape’s clothes, as inseparably fused into the fabric as the cat hair.

That, or the incessant chatter.

When Galen and Zana had returned, giddy with relief at having made it back alive and undetected, and with elation over their find, they had both fought over who would accompany him to the abandoned water tower outside the city to break out ‘Peet’. It had filled his heart with a strange ache - yes, he had known that Zana loved his friend, though he had never dared to examine that love too closely for fear it might turn out to be the same feeling you had for a beloved dog - but to see them almost get into a serious spat about who would be the one to save Pete’s life had driven home how much these... these aliens had come to regard them as friends. As equals.

He should begin to allow himself to let his guard drop. Allow himself to see them as friends, too, not just circumstantial allies.

He’d had to turn both of them down, in the end - Galen was the son of a high-ranking council member, and his face had been on the wanted posters that had been plastered all over town for months, just as Zana’s had. They simply were too visible; it was a miracle that Galen’s street vendor persona had worked so flawlessly.

But he wouldn’t be able to go on that mission alone, either - any human attempting to leave the city would be thoroughly questioned at the gates, and his identity as Melvin’s slave just wasn’t watertight enough to try that. In the company of an ape, on the other hand, nobody would spare him a second glance - he was already under supervision, after all.

So it had to be Melvin. The fat chimp actually wasn’t too bad, in a thoughtless, upper-class way. He was the first ape after Polar who regarded him as neither a pest, nor a person. It was an... interesting experience.

It was damn irritating, to be honest.

But it was also irrelevant; Melvin was nothing more than part of his cover, and as long as he didn’t draw unwelcome attention from the guards who were circling the perimeter below them, Virdon could ignore his prattle, or at least tune it out enough not to strangle him.

He and his chaperone were lying on their bellies in the high grass, and observing the bustle at the entrance. Something was happening down there, and Virdon didn’t like it.

„Looks like they’re getting a delivery from ‘Orvan’s Delights’,“ Melvin remarked in a low voice.

„More like _making_ a delivery,“ Virdon murmured back. He had planned to learn the number of guards, their pattern of movement, and the times of shift changes, and then to neutralize one of them after dark and go in and... improvise from there. There just was no way to learn the layout of the prison, or the strength of forces inside - he’d just have to be faster, and more ruthless, than the apes.

That wouldn’t be a problem.

But now it looked as if that plan had been rendered moot - a covered cart had been drawn up at the gate, and Virdon could think of only one reason for its presence... someone was being transferred from this prison.

What he couldn’t begin to guess was the reason for the transfer. Maybe they had managed to break Pete and gotten everything they needed from him (and he wouldn’t blame him for it, everyone broke at some point, _everyone),_ and were just taking him to another prison, or maybe Urko had gone overboard and they needed a bit more help now than a police medic could give...

Or maybe Pete was dead and they were about to dump his corpse somewhere in the swamp.

Maybe they were too late.

_If they killed you, I’ll make sure you get a proper funeral, Pete - I won’t let them throw you away like a piece of garbage._

_And then I’ll go back and kill Urko, and if it’s the last thing I’ll do._

It _would_ be the last thing he’d do, but at least he’d die being at peace.

The sun was pounding on his head, sucking the moisture from the ditches, and the wind was rustling through the grass. The voices of the guards sounded up to them, thin and indistinct, almost drowned out by the high-pitched buzz of mosquitos that were swarming him and Melvin in their hideout. Down at the gates, the horses were shaking their manes against the tiny pests, while black uniforms were hurrying in and out of the entrance, maneuvering the cart back and forth to demonstrate to their superiors that they had a reason to be there.

Behind him, Melvin slapped his own cheek. „Damn mosquitos. - That’s a hospital wagon. Maybe a youngster passed out? I remember that I nearly fainted when I had to witness an execution for the first time. The man had murdered his wife and three children, but I still think he was mentally ill and should actually have been locked up in the asylum for the rest of his life...“

Virdon’s breath stilled in his throat when a second group of guards emerged from the darkness of behind the entrance. They were carrying something.

Head lolling, a limp arm dangling. Naked skin, pale among the black uniforms. A human.

Burke.

 _It’s a hospital wagon,_ Virdon reminded his pounding heart. _A hospital wagon. That means Pete is alive. He’s alive._ His fingers dug into the grass, through the mesh of roots and soil.

_What have they done to him?_

„Can’t get to him now,“ he said hoarsely, more to himself than to Melvin. „Not with that mob.“

„I completely agree,“ Melvin said, relieved, „but once they’re inside the city, you’ll have an even greater mob to contend with.“

„Civilians. I’m not worried about them.“ In fact, their confusion could even be used to their advantage. „Do you have any idea where they could be taking him?“

Melvin thoughtfully rubbed his chin. „There are several hospitals in the city... but I think we can rule out The Mothers’ Infirmary For The Destitute, and also the General Hospital... they don’t treat humans there... and then there’s the private clinic of doctor Leander, north of the City... oh, I know! Cesar’s Clinic! They have a research department... they sometimes also treat people’s humans for minor injuries there, although you should actually go to a veterinarian...“

Virdon had listened to his meandering with growing impatience while he kept an eye on things down at the water tower. „So Cesar’s Clinic, you think? No other, equally probable destinations?“

„None that I can think of. As I said, they sometimes treat humans, because they also have them as lab… uh… Dr. Maltus is a widely known brain surgeon, although it must be said that he’s not... not exactly uncontroversial.“

„Well, he’s not touching Pete’s brain,“ Virdon said flatly. „Come on, we need to be there before they arrive. I’m going to have a word with that doctor.“

„That’s not a good idea.“ Melvin froze for a moment when Virdon turned around to stare at him, but then ploughed on, „Maltus has his own security, and you can bet that Urko’s men will be all over the clinic, too. Yes, you can barge in and rip the doctor’s throat out, but how will that help your friend?“

Below, a chimp was dumping Pete’s body into the straw like a dead dog. Pete didn’t move, although his head had come to lie in an awkward angle. The chimp still began to tie his wrists and ankles.

Virdon stared at the scene, grinding his teeth. „What do you suggest?“

„We need help. From someone powerful enough to defy Urko.“

„They’re all too afraid of that crazy gorilla... and even if you’d find someone who isn’t, what reason would they have to help us?“

„Ah, nobody has a reason to help _you.“_ Melvin affectionately ruffled his hair, and Virdon gripped the grass harder to keep himself from doing something rash. „But I know someone who has a strong motivation to help Galen.“

* * *

„This must be it.“ Zana’s voice sounded strangely hollow, thrown back from the brick walls enclosing their little group. She also sounded as if she had a cold, because she was breathing through her mouth, closing her sinuses against the stench surrounding them.

Virdon was still amazed that the apes possessed such an advanced sanitation system; it reminded him of historical footage of London’s sewerage, a widespread underground network of tunnels and catacombs that guided the foaming ooze of Cesaria into the surrounding swamps. Thankfully, its architects had outfitted the maintenance tunnels with embankments running alongside those dark brown rivulets.

Well, most of them. Yalu was in for an aromatic surprise.

„This storm drain opens to the alley behind your father’s house,“ Zana continued, studying the map in the weak light of a lantern that Galen held up beside her. „We’ll still be visible to any guard Urko might have posted to keep an eye on the back door as soon as we push up the hatch.“ She folded up the map and sent him a pleading look, clearly expecting him to have the solution for that problem already up his sleeve.

Well, he had, but Virdon doubted she would like it. „I’ll take care of that guard,“ he said.

Galen frowned. „And with ‘take care’, you mean...?“ He had stopped asking about the other guard, but Virdon suspected that he had drawn his own conclusions about the ape’s fate and now worried about the wild human leaving a trail of dead apes in its wake.

Virdon didn’t feel comfortable about it, either, but if he had to choose between Pete’s life and one of Urko’s men, there wasn’t any real dilemma.

And he hadn’t started this war.

„I mean that I’ll take care of it,“ he said. „Or do you want to?“

Galen stared at him for a long moment. „No,“ he said finally, „I trust you to find an adequate response to the situation.“

 _Don’t kill unless there really is no other choice._ For a moment, reality tilted, and Virdon fought the strange sensation of answering a superior officer. „I’ll do my best,“ he swallowed the ‘sir’ just in time.

He went first, in case a sniper was waiting for them; but he climbed out into an empty, silent street, cobblestones shimmering in the late morning light. Galen and Zana rushed to the backdoor that was half hidden by a jasmine bush, seeking cover under its fragrant branches, while he set off to find Urko’s spy.

When he joined them a short while later, Galen was locking eyes with a grizzly, grey-haired chimp in what seemed to be the living room, even though they were still on the ground floor. Zana was nowhere to be seen - Virdon assumed she was using the bathroom to get rid of the stench from their trip through the sewers. Or maybe she just wanted to avoid being in the same room as Galen’s father. You could cut the tension with a knife in here.

Galen turned to him, probably glad to have reason to break eye contact with his father. „Did anyone see us?“

„Nobody’s going to alert Urko,“ Virdon said evenly, and now Galen avoided his eyes, too. Yalu on the other hand pinned him down with a glacial stare, as if he was appraising a vicious dog, and Virdon found himself unable to move.

„I see you have armed yourself,“ Yalu remarked. „First sensible decision in ages.“ He crinkled his nose. „But you should groom it better. It stinks. All of you stink.“

„We had to go through the sewers to avoid Urko’s surveillance,“ Galen said. He sounded tired.

Yalu snorted. „For that strategy to work, you’d have to come out through the toilet bowl! What imbecile came up with... no, don’t answer that!“ He glared at Galen. „I told Urko my son wouldn’t be stupid enough to come here. Again, my son proved me wrong.“

„This isn’t about me,“ Galen said, raising his chin to meet his father’s eye. „Urko has taken one of my friends prisoner, and is currently transporting him to Dr. Maltus...“ he let his voice trail away as if the name alone would tell Yalu everything he needed to know, and the old chimp made a face and turned away.

„A friend, hm? A simian friend?“

Galen exchanged a quick glance with Virdon. „A human friend.“

„Your humans aren’t my concern. Do you seriously expect me to lock horns with Urko over something that trivial?“

Virdon felt bile rise in his throat. „If your folks won’t help us, we’ll have to find another way-“

„Teach _that one_ some manners while it’s in my house, or I’ll do it,“ Yalu growled, and Galen raised a hand towards Virdon, a warning, or a placation, it was impossible to say.

„Just hear me out, father...“

„I really would like to hug my son who’s returned from the wilderness,“ a slightly husky voice interrupted the brewing argument, and Virdon turned around to the most dignified ape he had ever seen. She was wearing a blue gown and a serene expression, and Virdon found himself inclining his head in a respectful bow without wanting to.

„Ma’am...“

She stilled for a moment, taking in his disheveled appearance without comment, until her gaze traveled upward to meet his, and he was struck by the expression in those shimmering brown eyes. She was seeing _him._

Then she moved on, and the spell was broken. „But before I can do that, you need to clean up, Galen, dear. I’m sure the conversation will go much more smoothly if we don’t have to hold it in a sewer. You, too,“ she turned her head back to Virdon, „Mouna will bring you new clothes.“

Virdon swallowed. „Time is running out while we speak, Ma’am...“

„Then I suggest you don’t lose any more of it with arguing,“ Galen’s mother said dryly. „Zana is already waiting in your father’s study, Galen.“ With that, she left, presumably to join Zana so that she wouldn’t have to face Yalu there alone.

Galen sighed. „Meet my parents. Let’s get cleaned up - there’s no use trying to defy my mother.“

They joined the couple less than five minutes later, still slightly damp, but definitely better smelling, and by now, Virdon was ready to leave for the hospital on his own. By his estimation, the cart had to arrive there any moment now, and he doubted that the apes would lose much time with pre-surgery preparation. Melvin’s quip about ripping out Maltus’ throat sounded more and more appealing.

If he was lucky, maybe Urko would be there, too.

Yalu was sitting ramrod straight in a leather armchair, glaring at Zana who perched on the sofa, equally stiff. Galen’s mother Ann was pouring tea, seemingly oblivious to the loaded atmosphere in the room.

„I can arrange a pardon for you, son,“ Yalu said without preamble. „I already told your girlfriend that there never was a death sentence on her head - Urko was just playing one of his sick games with her. Nobody gets hanged for letting some wild beasts run free; neither Zaius nor Urko could have justified such a request to the council - not without giving away their little secret about those particular humans.“ His eyes bored into Virdon’s, and again he was frozen to the spot under the old chimp’s glare. It occurred to him that while he had long stopped regarding these apes as animals, the reverse wasn’t true for Yalu, even though the old warhorse seemed to know about his supposedly otherworldly origins.

That was the beauty of speciesism, Virdon supposed - it kept everyone in their place, creating a neat and orderly world, idyllic even, provided you resided at the top of its system.

„You’re saying that Zana will get off free?“ Galen sounded surprised - and hopeful. He deflated when Yalu shook his head.

„No, of course not! Those two are a danger to society, and she defied a direct order! But I’ll see to it that her sentence will be short.“

„What of her career?“ Galen demanded to know.

Zana slapped her hand on her knee. „Stop letting him distract you, Galen! We’re not here to save my career, but to save Peet’s _life!“_

„She doesn’t need a career as a married woman,“ Yalu growled, „and I’ll take her in until you’ve served your sentence... how many years _that_ may be.“

„What about the humans?“ Zana brushed away that scenario.

Yalu shrugged. „They’re doomed.“

Zana stood. „We have wasted enough time here.“ She strode to the door and grabbed Virdon’s arm. „Let’s go.“

„They’ll kill you before you’ll even find that human in there,“ Yalu shouted after her. He shot to his feet when Galen moved to follow her out the door. „Didn’t you hear what I just said?“

„I heard you, father.“

„You can’t... you’ll break your mother’s heart!“

Galen stopped without turning around. „I’m sorry, mother. But I have to go.“

„Why?“ Ann’s voice was perfectly calm and unconcerned, but Virdon saw her hand that held the teacup tremble ever so slightly.

„Because Zana is going, and... and I belong with her.“

Yalu snorted. „Nonsense! You’ll be her husband, so she belongs with _you,_ and you better cure her of that human-loving nonsense right away!“

Now Galen did turn around. „It’s not nonsense,“ he said firmly, „these humans are _people,_ father! They are my friends, and one of them is in mortal danger! Of course I’ll help Zana and Alan to rescue Peet - every one of them would do the same for me.“

„Then you’ll die with them... for nothing,“ Yalu said darkly. „For a human!“

„That human isn’t ‘nothing’. A friend is never ‘nothing’. And...“ Galen made a step towards him, and Virdon’s heart ached for the pain he saw on the young ape’s face - no son should look at his father this way!

 _„Urko_ has him - had him since the last full moon,“ Galen pleaded. „Shouldn’t that alone be reason enough to help Peet, human or not?“

„Absolutely!“

All eyes turned to Ann as she rose from her seat like a wave rose from the ocean bed. „And I’m not going to lose my son and his family to this depraved individual.“ She turned towards Virdon, and once again he was held in her calm gaze. „Yalu is right - you cannot just smash through the gates; it won’t help your friend in the least if you get yourselves heroically killed.“

„So what do you suggest, ma’am?“ Virdon found that he could defer to this woman without gnashing his teeth.

Ann smiled and put a hand on Zana’s shoulder. „I suggest you leave this to our female ingenuity.“

* * *

It was a strange feeling to see the streets and alleys of her childhood through the window of Ann’s brougham. Although her parents had been well off, and her father had of course used a coach to go to work, Zana couldn’t remember when she had last traveled in one herself. Maybe when she was very little?

She smiled nervously at the matron opposite of her and tugged at the rolled up blanket under her robe that had transported her into the last month of pregnancy in the course of mere minutes. „I hope I’ll be convincing - I’ve never been pregnant...“

„Well, there’s a first time for everything.“ Ann’s sharp gaze seemed to burn through her robe, and the blanket, and expose the secret beneath it. But she merely added, „Female instinct will tell you how to act. Remember, those goons at the hospital are all men. As soon as their wives went into labor, they fled to the nearest pub and let themselves pity and celebrate by their drinking buddies.“

Zana smoothed the robe over the bulging cushion. „I hope I can do it. Is it like very bad stomach cramps?“

„No,“ Ann said dryly. „Not at all like stomach cramps. As you will find out soon enough.“ Her eyes shone with irony at Zana’s shocked stare. „Now you may be able to fool my poor, hapless son, and my equally hapless husband, but I’m not so old that I have gotten blind or senile. I gather you haven’t told Galen yet?“ It wasn’t really a question.

Zana absently rubbed her thumb over her knuckles. „No. He... he’d disapprove.“ She looked up and continued quickly, „And he’d be right - in our situation, it’d be suicidal to try and carry it to term. I’d endanger all of them... I already did.“ The guilt that had lodged itself in her chest since that terrible day climbed into her throat and made her voice thick and strangled. „I’m so tired all the time, and I slowed them down. Peet... Peet came back for me, to distract the patrol so I could hide, and they took him. It would’ve been me, otherwise. It would’ve been me.“

„He seems to have been a very faithful human,“ Ann remarked, and Zana tried not to flinch at her use of past tense. „I understand that you want to have him back. I hope you are not disappointed at what you _will_ get back.“

„Peet is my friend,“ Zana said softly. „And I owe him my life. Whatever he needs to get well again, he’ll get it. I’ll see to it that he does.“

„Yalu spoke the truth back at our house - you can stay with us, at least until the baby is born. You are always welcome here.“

Zana smiled wanly. As intimidating as Ann was, she could almost picture herself living there... drinking tea, and sewing baby clothes. But she couldn’t stomach Yalu, and the feeling was evidently mutual. Ann seemed to sense her misgivings.

„Yalu is a good man,“ she said. „Honest to the bone, not afraid of anything - or anyone. You would have nothing to fear from Urko.“

„I don’t think he likes me very much,“ Zana murmured.

„He has strong convictions,“ Ann conceded. „And so do you. It makes for lively conversation.“ She raised an eyebrow when Zana burst into laughter. „I wouldn’t have married a wimp. And it seems we have the same taste in men.“

Zana opened her mouth to protest - her Galen, soft-spoken, conciliatory, cautious Galen, was _nothing_ like his father! Nothing at all!

But then she remembered the book that he refused to share with anyone, but was copying obsessively every night in the weak firelight, and the risks he had taken on the humans’ behalf in his various, hilarious disguises - even walking into _Urko’s headquarters -_ his dogged loyalty to her as he defied his father, just now, and back when he had come after her, to her secret tree...

„There we are,“ Ann said briskly, and when Zana looked up, her stomach cramped into a cold, hard lump. The brougham had stopped in the middle of a narrow back alley. Outside, she could make out a high wall with an iron gate and behind it, the olive colored walls of a low crouching building. It looked more like a warehouse than a proper simian building, let alone a clinic.

„I thought Dr. Maltus was a celebrity?“ she whispered as she peered outside.

„He has garnered a certain notoriety,“ Ann commented dryly and rapped against the ceiling. „Open my door, Amos!“

A moment later, Alan, clad in the livree of one of Ann’s slaves, yanked open the door and stood respectfully aside as Ann descended the two steps from her coach. „Help this poor woman to the building,“ Ann ordered, and he turned to Zana and offered her his arm. She took it, not daring to look into his face. He wore that distant expression again, the one that she had come to dread.

She took short, cautious steps at his arm, one hand pressed into her back, and kept herself slightly hunched so that the guard at the door wouldn’t get a good look at her face. If it was Nelva...

But the voice was unknown to her. „No one’s allowed to enter. Urko’s orders.“

„I am not ‘no one’,“ Ann said, indignant. „I’m Councillor Yalu’s wife.“

„Sorry, ma’am. Not even a Councillor’s wife may enter.“

„This is a clinic, isn’t it?“ Zana took her cue and bent over with a moan. „And this is a medical emergency!“ Ann cried. „Get me a doctor here at once!“

Zana kept her gaze glued to the dirty cobblestones at her feet while there was shuffling and muttering at the door. Then the seat of a wheelchair appeared in her field of vision, and Galen’s hand, sticking out from the green sleeve of an orderly, took her from Alan’s grip and helped her to sit down.

She only dared to look up when they had passed the still grumbling guard and his equally flustered superior. Ann sailed ahead, with Alan trailing a step behind her looking more like a bodyguard than a coach driver.

„I need a doctor!“ Ann declared and made a beeline to a pair of doors with ‘surgical ward’ painted at the wall above them. Another guard stepped in her way, but Zana doubted that anyone or any _thing_ could stop Ann when she was on a mission.

„Are you a doctor?“ Ann demanded to know of the man, who was so surprised that he even gestured at his uniform.

„No, ma’am, I’m Constable Orlen-“

„Then why am I even talking to you?“ Ann said sharply. „I found this young woman here, who is very obviously _very_ pregnant,“ she waited a moment to let him squirm, „and called off a very important meeting to take her to the nearest hospital, so she wouldn’t have to give birth in the _gutter._ I went out of my way to help a young ape in need, at great personal inconvenience, so I suggest you go and find me a doctor before I have to employ _you_ as her midwife.“

The guard scurried away. Ann allowed herself a tiny, satisfied sniff. „Men. Not afraid to slaughter a pig, but horrified when it gets a little messy in the labor room!“

She pushed open the double doors and followed Orlen down the corridor, Alan prowling after her. Zana heard Galen take a deep breath behind her; then he pushed her wheelchair after them.

Ann stopped abruptly and took a sharp turn left; Alan hesitated a moment to throw a quick glance to Galen, who was struggling with the wheelchair and was slow to catch up to him, a silent message Zana didn’t want to decipher. Then he followed Ann into the room.

It seemed to be a preparation room - metal tables, a sink at the far wall, a stretcher with...

Zana’s heart began to race. A stretcher with Peet on it.

The tension in the room shot up in an instant, choking her breath. It took her a moment to identify its source, because Alan hadn’t moved a muscle; not even his breathing had changed. But his eyes were unnaturally bright and alert now, his attention snapped into focus like a tiger prowling a deer. His gaze was intent on the still form on the stretcher on the other side of the examination table. Zana wondered how the guards couldn’t see it, couldn’t sense it, like the charge in the air before a thunderstorm broke loose that made one’s fur stand on end.

Maybe they were distracted by the second force in the room. Ann had cornered an elderly, thin Chimpanzee who was turning his spectacles in his hands while he tried to compliment her out of the room. „I have a most important surgery in about ten minutes...“ He gestured towards Peet.

„You mean a human is a more important patient than an _ape?_ Did you lose your approbation and become a veterinarian?“ Ann’s voice held a delicate balance between shock and disdain, depending on how one wanted to interpret it, and Zana couldn’t tell if the doctor winced at the former or the latter.

„General Urko made it abundantly clear that the human is _his_ first priority...“

„Well, last time I looked, Urko hadn’t yet gotten his approbation, so I assume this is still your clinic and not his,“ Ann said briskly. „Or is that another one of your... experiments, doctor?“ She wandered over to the stretcher and peered down on Burke. „Poor thing. I’m beginning to understand the young people who are campaigning for more protective legislation regarding humans.“ She bent down to inspect him more closely, and Zana saw her hand hovering near the surgical instruments.

„Oh _Mothers!“_ she cried out, and all heads turned towards her; even Alan flinched for a moment, then moved a few inches to the side. Positioning himself. Zana forced a loud moan from her throat. „I just had another one! That one was so bad!“

Everyone was converging on her now, Ann, Alan, the doctor who looked as if he was going to examine her right then and there, and then discover the blanket and would sound an alarm, and they were all doomed now because she was too proud to let others do the work for once, no, she had to interfere-

The doctor stared at her, his hands hovering over her blanket-enhanced belly, his eyes huge like a frightened deer, a scalpel at his throat, and Alan’s face right beside his ear.

„If you alert the guards, I’ll cut your throat,“ he said softly, calmly, and Zana froze in her chair just like the doctor froze. Both of them stopped breathing.

Behind them, something crashed. Alan whirled around, taking the doctor with him, his other arm pressing the Chimp against his chest. The scalpel stayed at the man’s throat as if it was glued on there.

Orlen lay crumpled on the floor; Galen stood over him, a reflex hammer in his hand, staring at Alan as if he couldn’t decide if he should be more horrified at the sight of a human holding a knife at an ape’s throat, or at his own assault on the constable.

Ann sank to the floor in a faint.

* * *

Adrenaline was singing in Virdon’s body, a high note of elation that hummed over the darker currents of his rage, tugging at the hand that held the scalpel, urging him to let loose into a terrible dance; he’d be unstoppable, inevitable, implacable.

Virdon took a deep breath, grabbed the ape harder, grabbed the scalpel harder, and steered his hostage towards the door of the operating room. „Do as I say, and you’ll live,“ he murmured into the chimp’s ear; the ape didn’t react, out of fear, or maybe because it wasn’t advisable to nod while you had a scalpel hugging your throat.

Behind him, he heard shuffling noises as Galen dragged Orlen’s body across the floor after him. He had him get a roll of bandages, and together, they bound and gagged both the doctor and the still unconscious guard. Virdon tied them to the operating table for good measure.

When he returned, Ann had miraculously recovered from her fainting spell and was now keeping an eye on the corridor; Zana stood with her back to him, at the gurney.

She was bent over Burke.

For a moment, Virdon stood frozen to the spot, unable to step closer and assess the younger man’s condition himself. If Pete was... if they had come too late...

Zana turned around as if she had sensed his presence; her eyes were dark and shining with unshed tears, and Virdon felt tears spring up in his own eyes, unbidden, unwelcome.

„He’s unconscious, maybe... maybe he’s even in a coma,“ Zana said in a trembling voice. „Oh Alan, he’s in such a bad shape! I think some of his ribs are broken...“

Galen dumped a bundle of green clothing into his arms, and Virdon turned away, grateful for the interruption, grateful for the fabric soaking up the wetness from his eyes as he slipped the shirt over his head.

„I hid that second set in here when they ordered me to clean up Peet,“ Galen informed him, „it was a perfect opportunity to find out where he was and at the same time to prepare our breakout, and _actually,_ I had planned to lead you here, since I had been the one who had infiltrated this clinic in the first place.“ He glowered at his mother who serenely ignored him. „Well, at least we can use that garb to get Peet out. He won’t be able to walk by himself - we need to wheel him out on that gurney!“

„We should cover him with a blanket,“ Virdon suggested. „It will look as if we’re transporting a... a dead ape.“ A strange bout of superstition made him want to avoid the word ‘corpse’. He looked down on Burke, for the first time taking a good look at his friend.

Pete looked... exhausted, even in his unconscious state. His skin was gray under the fading tan, his lips dry and chapped, and the rest of his body... Virdon took a deep breath.

Well, he had lost weight, a lot, actually. There was a huge, dark bruise on his right side, maybe some broken ribs, as Zana had suggested, and Virdon worriedly thought of the liver and its big vessels under those ribs, under those mottled bruises. How badly had he been beaten? Was he already bleeding out under his skin, under their very eyes?

It was no use driving himself crazy with those questions now; they’d only lose precious time, and risk running into Urko, and as much as Virdon wished to run into Urko right now, getting Burke out of here, and to safety, had precedence.

„There is no blanket here,“ Galen said, shaking him out of his thoughts, „this is a preparation room, not a morgue.“

„Thank god,“ Virdon murmured and grabbed the gurney. „Let’s go then. You know the plan.“

„Yes, and I still don’t like it,“ Galen grumbled, but took up position at the other end. „Let’s go before I change my mind and drag Zana out of here by her hair.“

They had just rounded the corner, when Ann began to scream.

 


	6. Chapter 6

Zana’s heart hammered against her ribs as she watched Galen’s back vanish around the corner. Ann shot her a calculating glance. „Are you ready to unleash Urko’s baboons against them?“

„Never.“

Ann nodded. Then she opened the door and ran out into the corridor. _„Help! Help! They are killing Dr. Maltus!“_

Ann couldn’t escape with them; she had to return to her life as respectable matron, wife of Councillor Yalu, above all suspicion. Zana still admired her nerve to send a whole patrol after her own son.

Heavy boots thundered down the corridor, and Ann retreated into the preparation room again; she flicked Zana a sharp glance, reminding her to resume her role. Zana began to writhe and moan in her chair, trying to imitate a sensation she had never experienced. Her only consolation was that the men bursting through the door couldn’t know what it was like, either, and Ann lost no time to distract them.

 _„Help me, they’re going to kill us!_ Oh, officer, they went in there,“ she pointed at the doors to the operating room, „Mothers only know what they’re doing there to the poor doctor, and they dragged in one of yours, too!“ She grabbed Zana’s wheelchair while the men were taking up position at the doors, and pushed it into the corridor.

More guards were running towards them, batons drawn. They couldn’t fire their weapons inside the hospital, one of the few advantages of their location. Maybe Galen and Alan could outrun them, if the guards saw through their disguise.

For some precious moments, Ann managed to throw everything into a complete chaos. She grabbed a guard by the lapel of his uniform when he started off into the right direction, „Officer, I want to make a statement!“

The guard tried to shake her off. „You can give your statement at the precinct, ma’am...“

„But it just _happened!_ Don’t you collect evidence at the crime scene?“ Ann hung on like one of Melvin’s cats. The officer reached for his notebook, clearly torn between contradicting duties.

„One of them hit your comrade with a _hammer!_ On the _head!_ Who knows, he might have _killed_ the poor man!“ Ann let go with one hand to fan herself. „And, and, and the _other_ one held a _scalpel_ at Dr. Maltus’ throat! I don’t want to imagine what he did to the poor man in the operating room... maybe he started operating on him? Oh Mothers...“ She sank down, caught in another bout of fainting. „Please, girl, get me my smelling salts...“

Zana twisted around in her chair and waved for another guard to wheel her over to where Ann had sunk to the floor, nested in the concentric circles of her gown like a stone thrown into a lake, with the guards helplessly bobbing on the waves.

Ann took the flacon with the smelling salts with a limp hand and inhaled deeply. „Where is a doctor? This poor girl is writhing in pain,“ Zana flinched and resumed her moaning, _„in a hospital, and nobody is bothering to help! Nurse!“_

 _„It’s coming, it’s coming!“_ Zana yelled, finally getting comfortable in her role. _„I can feel its head!“_

 _„Get that woman a nurse, stat!“_ one of the guards barked, and two of his men almost fell over each other in their haste to get out of the fray.

Zana was beginning to appreciate Ann’s methods.

The matron had quickly recovered - again - and began to randomly wheel her around in apparent confusion, accidently blocking the officers’ movements and forcing them to walk around her and into one another. A yell and a half-swallowed curse told Zana that the object she had just rolled over had been a foot. She quickly looked up into Ann’s face. Ann’s eyes burned with unholy glee.

Then she quickly resumed her role, her expression a mixture of mania and confusion. Zana followed her gaze: a guard returned with a nurse in tow, a flustered girl half her age. Behind them, the guards had finally managed to shake off their confusion and took up pursuit. A whistle called for reinforcements.

„That young lady needs to see an obstetrician right away,“ Ann said, and put the nurse’s hands on the handles of Zana’s wheelchair. „All this _mayhem_ has thrown her into premature labor! I know what I’m talking about, I’m a mother myself! Off you go, before those criminals come back and savage us all!“

The girl muffled a cry and almost toppled the wheelchair as she turned it on the spot and dashed off. Zana leaned over the armrest to catch a last glimpse of Ann. The older woman stood aside, back pressed to the wall, as a new horde of black uniforms rushed past her, her gown a patch of blue sky in the mud colored corridor.

Then they turned a corner, and she vanished from Zana’s sight.

* * *

 

„Urko has already searched my parents’ house from top to bottom,“ Galen wheezed, pushing hard to accelerate the gurney, „if he finds my mother here, all the acting skills in the world won’t help her - he won’t believe her story for a second! And Zana...“

Virdon pushed against the gurney to slow it down before it shot into an intersection, and cautiously peered into the crossing corridors. „I wouldn’t worry about Ann - she knows how to direct her battalions.“

„Her _battalions?“_ Galen snorted. „She’s an army of one!“

Virdon bit back a grin. „I agree, Urko is severely outnumbered.“

Behind them, deeper voices were suddenly joining Ann’s high-pitched wailing and Zana’s weaker moans; the urgent drone rose to shouts and barked orders, and among it, a sound that made every hair on Virdon’s body stand on end: the piercing shrill of a whistle.

„We should get going,“ he said, and Galen threw himself against the heavy gurney to get it moving again. They raced down the corridor, Galen providing speed, while Virdon kept it upright and on course. The construction still almost toppled over when he made a sharp left turn and dragged it into the orthopedic ward. Shouts and the sound of running feet were coming from different corridors now, converging on them.

„What are you doing?“ Galen shouted. „That’s not the right way to the-“

„And do you want to lead them directly to it? We’ll never outrun them that way!“ Virdon shouted back. Sweat was running down his back, and his heart was hammering in his chest, both from the exertion and from fear.

Burke was limp on the gurney, still and pale like a corpse. He hadn’t moved once since Virdon had discovered him down at the water tower. It was beginning to unnerve him.

The ward was full with apes - fortunately, they all seemed to have undergone surgery; most of them were wearing casts, some of them lying in traction. Virdon eyed their weights while he was shoving the beds towards the door, ignoring the protests of their inhabitants. Galen, catching on to what he was doing, let go of the gurney and grabbed another bed.

Something slammed against the door from outside, and the impact jumped through the bedframe and sent a jolt through Virdon’s arms up to his shoulder joints. The ape lying in that bed yelped with pain. Meanwhile, Galen’s passenger tried to hit him with his cast-armoured arm, and the rest of the ward broke out in chaos, as the more mobile inhabitants tried to crawl, limp, and hobble to the other exit at the far end of the room. Those who were tied to their beds resorted to hurling their food, pill boxes, and trays at them. Everyone was screaming, either for help, or for their blood.

Pete’s gurney was a still island in a churning sea.

Another blow thundered against the door and the bed angled against it, but this time, he had to evade a kick from a cast leg aimed at his groin, and couldn’t put his own weight against the assault from outside. The door blade shoved both him and the bed back - just for a second, before he threw himself against it again, but it was already too late.

Virdon let go of the bed rail and jumped back as the first guard squeezed through the door; Galen had pushed almost half of the beds against this end of the room, and they were wedged into each other at various angles so that they had now formed a maze of interlocking barriers, but Virdon knew it would only buy them a few moments - the apes would just jump over them, ignoring the patients...

... the patients who were rigged in traction.

Galen seemed to have had the same inspiration - he was swinging a weight like a wrecking ball, knocking out one of the guards, then sprinting towards Burke’s gurney. The counterweight he had used dropped to the floor, yanking the leg of the patient upwards. A yell and a string of curses followed him.

Virdon remembered the scalpel in his breast pocket. He cut through the rope that held the weight, ignored a new tirade as the ape’s leg slammed down into the mattress, and hurled the wooden block against the door, smashing the head of another guard between doorblade and doorframe. The ape went down without a sound, and Virdon jumped over the beds to get to Galen before the ape’s comrades could remove the blockage from the door.

Galen had opened the leather straps that had pinned Burke to the gurney, and had slung him over his shoulders like a dead deer. Virdon froze for a second at that image, then tried to shake off that association and to focus on the situation at hand instead. „I’ll lead them away, you... you don’t wait for me, understand? As soon as Zana arrives, you leave.“ They were out in another corridor now, Virdon pushing the empty gurney.

„And start another search and rescue mission as soon as Peet is strong enough to strangle me for losing you?“ Galen shook his head emphatically. „Oh no, Alan, you better turn up in time, because we _will_ wait until you show up.“

„Or until Urko does?“ If they’d had the time, Virdon would have gladly done the strangling.

„Better don’t be late then.“ Galen jogged down the stairs to the basement, and Virdon swallowed a curse and smashed the gurney against the wall to alert their pursuers to his position.

And also because it brought him temporary relief.

He didn’t have to wait long for the guards to show up, and although he didn’t have to worry about Pete now, the empty gurney was still heavy and also _top-_ heavy, and difficult to steer without a second man. Still, he tried to keep it going as long as possible, to fool the enemy into thinking that he still had their prey with him, and maybe his accomplice, too.

He let go of the thing when they started firing at him, trading deception for speed. He toyed with the thought of circling back to the waiting area at the entrance, forcing them to cease fire, but who knew if they’d rather risk a bit of collateral damage?

He might not have qualms about taking out a guard, but he wouldn’t endanger civilians.

Another bullet missed him by inches and buried itself into the wall, tearing out a chunk of plaster and spraying him with tile shards. Virdon flinched involuntarily, although by then the reflex wouldn’t have helped him anymore, and dove out the backdoor and into an alley that was even narrower and dirtier than the one at the main entrance.

They’d had virtually no time to get the layout of the surroundings - they had lost too much time with Galen’s family drama, and when he had finally sent Galen ahead to the hospital, he had been more concerned with its internal floor plans than with escape routes outside.

At least above ground.

Virdon skidded around another corner, unconcerned about any civilian who might see him - to most of them, a human running from an angry ape wouldn’t be something to spare a second glance for, anyway. Only when he turned the sixth corner, entering a small, slightly cleaner alley headed straight west, did he slow down and scan the buildings for accidental onlookers. But the street was deserted, and no curtain moved.

Virdon jumped down the storm drain and pulled the hatch shut.

The street dozed on in the amber light of late afternoon.

* * *

Zana straightened in her chair and focused on her immediate problem - the delivery ward. The thunder of boots and the shouts were muffled now, broken by the labyrinth of corridors, and the corridor they had entered was deserted. She wouldn’t get a better opportunity.

„Stop... stop! I’m getting sick! _Stop!“_ When the nurse didn’t react, Zana catapulted herself out of the chair and crumpled onto the floor, moaning and making heaving noises. When she looked up, the girl was still hurrying down the corridor, pushing the empty wheelchair.

She should just let her turn the corner and then sneak away... but then Zana’s eyes fell on the door in the opposite wall.

_„Nurse! I think my water is breaking!“_

The Chimp came to a stumbling halt and hesitantly turned around to face her, but made no move to come back. Zana silently cursed the girl’s lacking sense of duty; she’d have to ramp up her act. She curled up on the floor, holding her belly. _„Ooooh Mothers... oh someone help me!“_

The hard soles of the nurse’s shoes clattered on the floor, giving Zana a good estimation of the girl’s position. When she bent down to help her back into the wheelchair, Zana grabbed her by the nape of her neck and smashed her forehead on the tiles.

The nurse fell to her knees, more because she had lost balance than from Zana’s blow, and struggled to break away. Zana got up to her knees, too, and grabbed her head with both hands, but now her victim was expecting a repeat and braced her hands on the floor to avoid kissing it a second time.

Instead, Zana yanked her head sideways and smashed it into the wall.

This time, the nurse didn’t put up any resistance when Zana dragged her into the broom closet. She dropped the dazed Chimp on the floor and leaned against the door to untie the cushion under her robe. The girl weakly raised her head and tried to focus her eyes on her.

„Don’t make a sound,“ Zana warned her. „You just got randomly caught up in this mess, and I don’t want to hurt you... more.“ Memories of Kuma flashed unbidden in her mind. How easy it was to turn into a brute if you were desperate enough...

„Take off your clothes,“ she ordered. When the girl didn’t react, she knelt down and began to tear at her tunic. The nurse didn’t put up any resistance; she was like a gigantic doll, limp and heavy. Zana glanced at her, worried that she had hurt the girl more than she had intended. But maybe she had just terrified the poor thing.

„If I was you, I’d stay in here until everything has calmed down,“ she told the girl when she dumped her own robe into her lap. „You don’t want to run into my friends. They’re armed.“ She remembered Alan’s hand with the scalpel at Dr. Maltus’ throat, his soft voice and the look in his eyes, and shivered. Yes, her friend was armed, and dangerous, and had withdrawn into a cold silence, and she didn’t really know him anymore.

She opened the door a tiny crack to peer outside; the corridor was still deserted, but she could hear muffled cries and heavy thumps from somewhere that made her hesitate - had the men got caught up in a fight? With Peet still unconscious on the gurney?

For a moment, Zana hovered in the door, uncertain if she should follow the sounds and try to help, but then Alan’s words echoed in her mind:

„Whatever you hear or see, you’ll run straight to our meeting place. Don’t come after us - you’ll just distract us, or run danger to be used as a hostage... or get yourself killed. And that’s something Galen would never forgive you.“

_If you get yourselves killed, I’ll never forgive you, either._

She swallowed her tears and headed towards the exit.

* * *

The sun was already low in the sky, casting a golden glow over the cobblestones and lighting up the narrow ground-floor windows. Zana tried to walk with an air of intention, as if she really was a nurse who was on her way to the nearest apothecary. Peet had once told her that the secret to a cover identity was to ‘become the mask’, as he had put it - to really believe that one was the person one pretended to be.

Peet. It was hard not to break into a jog, so she just accelerated to a brisk pace. It was probably foolish to hurry that much; from the sounds she had heard, he was probably still back in the hospital, unaware of the battle raging around him.

It was hard not to turn around and run back there.

When she finally arrived at their meeting place, Zana’s legs were aching from the unnatural fast walk, and her throat was dry enough to contemplate making tea, if she’d have to wait for the rest of her friends to catch up. Maybe the thought wasn’t even that outlandish; after all, they were meeting up in one of Melvin’s restaurants.

Melvin had claimed that the establishments were nothing but financial investments, but Zana suspected that the large Chimp was secretly dreaming of a life filled with dramatic flambés and artful hors d'oeuvres. He certainly had the talent, as the patrons of ‘Orva’s Delights’ could confirm. But sons of Councillors became doctors and lawyers and eventually, Council members themselves; being a chef was simply unthinkable.

Right now, the restaurant was dark and silent; Melvin had selected one that was closed today. Zana slipped in through the backdoor that Melvin had unlocked for them, and paused to listen for hushed sounds of guards lying in wait for her.

Faint voices came from the guest room, but they didn’t sound like whispered commands to take aim. One of them sounded like Galen. Zana’s heart began to beat faster, and the ache in her throat dissolved. She quickly crossed the corridor.

At first, she only saw Melvin, and her heart dropped to the floor - had she just imagined her fiancé’s voice? Then Galen rose from behind a table and turned around. He smiled tiredly at her. „I cleaned up as much as possible,“ he apologized, „but the restrooms are tiny...“

„To be fair, they weren’t designed with people in mind who come up through the toilet,“ Melvin interjected, „the facilities are meant to be used the other way round.“ He crinkled his nose. „I’m really glad that I brought new clothes for all of you, although I had thought it’d be just because you’d have to change your appearance. I’d never have gotten the stench out of my coach.“

Zana hugged Galen, ignoring the ripe smell that was still clinging to his fur, before she turned to Melvin. „Won’t it raise suspicion if your coach is parked in front of a closed restaurant?“

Melvin frowned. „Why should it? I’m the owner, I can drop by for an inspection whenever I want to.“

That was true, but Urko was both cunning and paranoid, and if word got to him about _anything_ out of the ordinary, he’d sink his teeth into it and wouldn’t let go until all resistance was broken. Zana doubted that Melvin would be able to handle even one session with Urko; most apes were no match to the general’s brutality.

And Peet had been in his hands for almost a month...

Zana’s eyes fell on her friend’s still form. Galen had cleaned him up with some wet towels; a bundle of clothes was waiting on a chair. Peet was shivering slightly as the water was drying on his skin, but he still didn’t open his eyes. Perhaps he didn’t want to wake up.

„We need to put on his clothes,“ she said, „he’s cooling out. Where’s Alan?“

„We had to split up,“ Galen murmured, not looking at her. He grabbed the bundle and handed her a shirt. „He’ll be here shortly. Don’t worry,“ he added when he saw her stare, „if someone is able to take on Urko’s troops, it’s him.“

Zana clung to that thought while she pulled the shirt over Peet’s head. When she pushed him into a sitting position to draw it down over his torso, he flinched painfully and opened his eyes.

„Peet! Hello, Peet,“ Zana said tenderly and stroked his face.

His dark eyes slowly focused on her, then widened with sudden panic. He jerked back and scrambled away from her. He didn’t recognize her. To him, she was just some random ape... someone who was going to hurt him.

Tears pricked in her eyes and blurred her vision. She had anticipated that reaction, but that didn’t make the reality any more bearable. She wiped her eyes and rose. „I’ll make some tea. Peet needs, needs to rehydrate...“

She stumbled towards the kitchen.

Galen caught up with her in a moment and took the kettle out of her hands. „Don’t take it so personally,“ he said gently, „Peet has been through a lot, and he’s not really awake right now. He knows you, Zana, he knows you’re his friend.“

„Right now, he only knows that I’m a Chimp, just like all the apes _there_ had been Chimps,“ Zana said and watched him fill the kettle and put it on the stove. „And that’s something that will stay with him forever. Whenever he’ll look at me, his first instinctive reaction will be fear... and only after that, he’ll tell himself that he doesn’t have to fear this particular ape. He’ll never... it’ll never be the same again.“ And now the tears were rolling down her cheeks.

Galen lit the fire under the kettle and looked at her over his shoulder. „Don’t be so pessimistic, Zana. You’re not some random activist from Humans’ Rights Watch who broke him out of a laboratory. You were his friend before, and you’ll be friends again. He was very fond of you, you know?“

She wiped the tears away, annoyed at herself. Maybe it was all the tension and fear of this day, of all the days since she had watched the bounty hunters drag Peet away, that had turned her into a teary-eyed puddle of misery. But it wasn’t over yet, and she couldn’t allow herself to break down. With a determined sniff, Zana reached for the tea canister.

„You need to drink a bit of hot tea, Peet,“ she said firmly when she returned to him. Peet was lying on his side again, his flank moving with rapid, shallow breaths. Maybe he really had broken ribs. Maybe he had internal injuries. For a moment, Zana just stood there and stared down at him. Peet didn’t just need hot tea and blankets; Peet needed a doctor, and she had no idea where to find one.

She slowly crouched down by his side, careful not to make any sudden movements, and laid a hand on his shoulder. He flinched, but didn’t move away, and she tried not to feel hurt by his reaction. Peet wasn’t really coherent, and her feelings were secondary to his need.

She slowly fed him the tea in little sips, and he became sufficiently awake to recognize her and ask for Alan. „He is on his way,“ she reassured him, „he’ll be here soon, and then we’ll leave and you can sleep and heal.“ She wasn’t sure he had understood all of it, because after some moments, he asked for Alan again, as if he had forgotten that he had just asked that question. „He is on his way,“ Zana repeated. „He’ll be here any moment now.“

Melvin poked his head over the upturned chairs on the table next to them and peered down on Peet with a mixture of pity and curiosity. „I don’t want to be _that_ person,“ he said, „but it won’t take long for the news to reach Urko, and then all the gates will be closed as tightly as Zaius’ buttcheeks during the yearly budget session. Not even my spotless reputation will get us through then.“ He gestured towards Peet, who had sunk back into an exhausted sleep that was close to a coma. „We’ll be trapped here with one damaged and one missing human, and a very pissed off Chief General of the Cesarian City Police. Wouldn’t it be smarter to at least save one of them?“

Galen heaved a sigh as if he had held that conversation before. „That wouldn’t solve anything, Melv. Peet would crawl from his deathbed to find Alan, just as Alan was unstoppable in his search for Peet. They are inseparable. There simply isn’t ‘one of them’. Neither will ever accept the thought of leaving the other one to his fate.“

„And neither do I,“ Zana interjected.

Melvin shook his head. „They aren’t even yours, or so I gathered,“ he said, „you just nabbed them from the institute, just like Galen here made off with Zaius’ library.“

„It was just _one_ book,“ Galen muttered. Melvin ignored him.

„You aren’t responsible for them, you’re not the owner. Why are you risking your life for them?“

„Because they would do the same for Galen or me,“ Zana said simply. „And I _am_ responsible for them. We’re all responsible for each other, Melvin; that’s something Zaius and his caste have forgotten long ago.“

For a moment, nobody spoke; just when Zana began to wonder if she had said something profoundly deep or profoundly stupid, a thump and a grunt from the restrooms announced Alan’s arrival. Melvin grabbed another bundle of clothes and waddled down the corridor; Zana closed her eyes for a moment, weak with relief.

Maybe they would make it back to safety, after all.

When they finally filed out the front door, the shadows had grown long and darker, and the sky was a hazy pink high above the dusk-filled street. Melvin held open the door to his coach and ushered them inside as if he was the servant and not the grey haired human that perched on the coachman’s seat. Galen was carrying Peet again, as he would not be slowed down by the human’s weight thanks to his superior simian strength. Alan went last, his hand resting lightly between Zana’s shoulder blades. He scanned the street a last time before he followed her inside, his eyes cold and alert. He was still in predator mode; Zana hoped he would lose it once they were out of danger. She missed the mellow, smiling human he had been before.

Melvin drew the curtains shut as soon as they were all inside, and rapped against the front wall to signal the driver to start moving. He sank down on the seat with a heavy sigh and gestured to the floor. „Get down,“ he said to Alan. „When the guards poke their heads through the window, I don’t want you to be the first thing they see.“ To Zana’s surprise - and relief, the human sat down on the floor of the coach without a word of protest. He probably wanted to be at Peet’s side anyway, Zana reasoned; she couldn’t imagine that he’d obey Melvin under any circumstances.

She stared at the dark curtains, imagining the streets of her childhood sinking into the shadows of evening, the bright white light of the street lamps and the golden glow of candles in the windows flickering to life, like stars shining up into the sky - an island of light in a sea of black wilderness.

„I haven’t even seen my father while I was here,“ she whispered.

Galen laid a hand on her arm. „It would have been too dangerous...“

„I know. But I feel I won’t be coming back here in his lifetime.“ She tried to sound factual; she wasn’t very successful. „I hope your mother will be alright - Urko will try to pin his failure on your parents.“

„If Urko had the power to arrest my father, he would have done so already,“ Galen said dryly. „Mothers know he tried! But he can’t prove that my mother had anything to do with Peet’s escape, and since his and Alan’s existence are a state secret, he can’t publicly prosecute her. What would he accuse her of? My father would rip him apart in court!“

Zana thought it strange how proud he sounded, considering the relationship between father and son, but said nothing. For Ann’s sake, she had to hope that Galen’s faith in his father’s prowess was justified.

The coach rumbled through the gates and into the silent darkness of the Northern road without a hitch; Zana could only speculate what kept Urko distracted from his pursuit of them. Conversations had died down a while ago, and she didn’t feel like starting one, either; her eyes were drooping shut from exhaustion. Melvin hadn’t lit the lantern inside the coach, and she only sensed Alan’s presence by the heat radiating from his body, and the faint stench that still lingered in his hair.

Although, to be fair, the same could be said about Galen beside her.

„How badly is he injured?“ she finally asked no one in particular. Somehow, it was easier in the darkness, where she couldn’t glean the answer from the expression in their faces, their eyes. She had to wait for the words... and the darkness would hide her reaction as well.

After a long while, Alan spoke up in a low voice. „It’s too soon to say. I hope they’ll have a... a veterinarian in that monastery. One who treats humans.“ It was hard to tell if he sounded bitter.

„But he’ll... he’ll survive!“ Zana held her breath. _Please say that he will. Please tell me that we weren’t too late!_

But when Alan spoke again, his voice was heavy with foreboding.

„It’s too soon to say...“

* * *

The heavy scent of jasmine hung in the air, torn from a thousand tiny white flowers by a light, but steady rain. Wet sandstones, dividing the gardens of the monastery into tidy combs, gleamed weakly in the gray light of early morning.

„I cannot thank you enough for your help.“ Galen ducked his head to avoid the dripping vine of a pole bean that had rebelliously let go of its trellis. „I hope you won’t get in trouble upon your return. If Urko suspects that your nightly excursion had anything to do with us... I mean, it does coincide with the brouhaha at the hospital...“

„Oh, I’m not returning to the City right now.“ Melvin plucked a tomato and popped it into his mouth. „I’m visiting my father’s estate,“ he said, chewing, „and since he had ordered me to come back and settle an inheritance dispute for his accountant, I have a perfectly valid reason to leave.“

Galen smiled and shook his head. Melvin was as unruffled as ever; he wondered if his old student buddy had ever really grasped the danger he had put himself in when he agreed to aid them in their „little adventure.“

Well, maybe he had. Maybe there was a sharper mind and kinder heart under all the pomp and flair than Galen had given him credit for.

„I wish I could stay a little longer and finally learn what that book is about,“ Melvin said. „Something that has old Zaius in such a pickle must be a fascinating read.“ He flicked Galen a sideways glance.

„It is fascinating,“ Galen confirmed. „But it could also cost you your head. You have a good life, Melvin - you should hang on to that. Forget about that book.“

„Wish _you_ could put it back and forget about it?“ Melvin’s eyes were sharp, although wry amusement was still twinkling in their corners.

Galen sighed and gazed over the rows of pole beans and summer squash. „If I started that, there’d be no end to wishing. If Zana hadn’t defied Zaius... but how could I wish for her to become a murderer? If she hadn’t met the humans... if the humans hadn’t fallen down on our world...“ He shrugged and resumed his walk. „The only way that leaving that book alone would have saved me from this... this life as an outcast, would’ve been if I had never met Zana, and how could I wish for _that?_ So if it doesn’t make a difference... then I prefer to know the truth.“

„And what if others would also prefer to know the truth?“ Melvin was busy harvesting tomatoes and collecting them in his robe. „Maybe they’d like to decide for themselves, instead of having you making that decision for them. Or Zaius.“

Galen froze. „I’m not like Zaius!“

„No?“ Melvin half turned to face him. „Then don’t presume to tell me to forget about that book. I can imagine that it feels good to know something that nobody else knows - I wouldn’t tell you my recipe for Orva’s Special Dip, either - but if you really think that this book holds a truth that apekind needs to know about, you should stop hugging it to your chest and telling the rest of us that it’s too dangerous for us to know. Next thing you know, you’ll lock it up in a secret room behind your office.“

„Feel free to spend the next ten days sharing Ango’s cell then,“ Galen said, miffed, „or how ever many days Peet needs to recover, and read away. You just need to come up with a really good reason why you’re holing up here, instead of settling that inheritance thing of yours.“

„I’m trying to win poor little Ango back for Aunt Gila’s stud farm,“ Melvin said, unperturbed. „She needs a successor, and Ango failed to produce an heir before he found his god. She’ll be eternally grateful for me to have at least tried, and my whole family can attest to Ango’s pigheadedness, so naturally, it would take some days to talk sense into him.“ He winked at Galen. „I never run out of excuses - that’s why I’m such an excellent defense lawyer.“

Galen stared at him. „You’re really planning to stay?“

„Nah.“ Melvin slapped his shoulder. „My father would kill me. He needs that accountant, and the poor bastard can’t put two and two together anymore since that dispute escalated. But we should find a way to stay in touch somehow. I admit, I’m curious what will become of you. Actually, that’s something the whole class wondered about, back when you were still procrastinating at university.“

„That will be difficult... impossible, actually,“ Galen said. „I have no idea where I’ll be from one day to the next, so how would you answer my letters?“

Melvin shrugged. „Some day you’ll settle down - as soon as you’re outside Cesarea’s dominion, I’d wager, what with the baby underway...“

„It was just a rolled up blanket-“

„Anyway, as soon as you’ve found a permanent residence, you could send me the address, and in the meantime, you could send me excerpts from that book.“

It was a tempting offer. To spread the truth, under Zaius’ nose... he had promised Dolan the same, Galen remembered with a pang of guilt, but had completely forgotten to make good on that promise.

Maybe Melvin was right. Maybe he was slowly turning into the Chimpanzee version of Zaius, jealously guarding his terrible, earth-shaking secret, enjoying the sweet exclusivity of being the one who knew... who was somehow elevated above the rest of apekind for that knowledge.

Maybe it was time to break that spell.

„That is an excellent idea,“ he said. „With one tiny problem: where should I send these copies? It needs only one of them to reach Urko instead of you, and you’re dead. I don’t want your head on my conscience, Melv, as annoying as it is sometimes.“

„For an ape who’s so widely read, I notice a sad lack of crime novels in your repertoire,“ Melvin said, „otherwise you’d have immediately thought of a dead drop where you can deposit the letters.“

„A dead drop,“ Galen repeated.

Melvin nodded empathically. „This monastery gets _heaps_ of letters! Mostly prayer requests, but our Ango is a gifted gardener, and apparently, he’s sending out a monthly letter with gardening advice, and he has also created a _calendar_ with gardening tips... he even asked me if I didn’t want to contribute some recipes... anyway, he gets a lot of mail, too. You could write to him and use a code word on the envelope.“ He hesitated for a moment, his eyes gleaming with enthusiasm.

Galen thought that Melvin was getting all too enamoured with this whole clandestine operations idea. „Fine. So I’ll write ‘operation beanstalk’ on the envelope, and then Ango knows to forward those letters to you.“

Melvin stared at him with raised brows for a moment, as if he was questioning Galen’s sincerity, then he shook his head. „I’d go with something less extravagant,“ he said, „maybe ‘rare seed exchange’ - everyone thinks it’s about local tomato varieties, when in truth, the letters contain... The Seeds of Change!“

Melvin was one of the few apes who could sound capitals, Galen thought wryly. But he nodded, resigned. „Alright, I’ll send you - or Ango - copies of the chapters whenever I find the time to actually copy them. Considering our situation, don’t expect regular mail.“

„And you’ll use the code word?“

„I’ll use the code word,“ Galen said indulgently. Melvin slapped his shoulder again.

„Great! This is the beginning of a wonderful project!“

Knowing Melvin’s definition of adventure, Galen didn’t dare to speculate what that ‘project’ would entail; he was just glad that he’d be miles and miles away from it.

They had reached the gate of the monastery. Melvin turned to clasp Galen’s hand; then he drew him into an unexpected hug.

„Great things are going to happen, Galen,“ he said. „I can feel it in my gut. The City is ripe for a change!“

Galen patted his back and suddenly wished he had never written that note to Melvin. Had never roped him into this „adventure,“ had never shown him a glimpse of his dangerous, exciting, deadly new life.

„Whatever changes may come, old friend,“ he said hoarsely, „stay safe. Stay safe, Melv.“

* * *

Pete was sitting upright in bed when Virdon toed open the door and poked his head in. He was staring out of the small window that opened to the monastery’s gardens; only when Virdon set the tray down on the covers did he slowly turn his head, and warily eyed the cup and covered bowl on it.

„Told ya I don’t want no drugs,“ he muttered.

Virdon raised a brow. „The tea is meant to speed up the healing of your contusions, Pete - god knows they’re big enough to need all the medical support these people can provide. It won’t make you drowsy.“ He handed the cup to his friend who hesitated for a long moment before he took it and cautiously sniffed at it.

„Eh.“ Pete made a face. „But it’ll make me puke.“

„Try to keep it down,“ Virdon advised, determined not to let Burke’s bad mood affect him, „I don’t think your ribs will take kindly to you retching. Speaking of which.“ He uncovered the bowl with flourish. „Time to smear some more goop on them.“ Pete’s ribs had been broken, though luckily, none of them had pierced the lung, or so the monastery’s physician had assured them. They didn’t have a veterinarian, but in a moment of grace, the monk had decided that simian and human bodies were similar enough that he would agree to treat Burke.

In the end, it was Virdon who attended him, under the direction of physician Norel - except for the initial examination, when Pete had been too out of it to object, he didn’t let any ape come close enough to touch him. Virdon couldn’t really fault him for his reaction, but it worried him that his friend didn’t even make an exception for Galen and Zana.

Right now, his job was to change the dressing on Pete’s ribs and reapply the herbal paste that Norel mixed up for him daily. It didn’t smell too horrible, and it seemed to dissolve the black bruising pretty quickly, though Virdon didn’t assume to know how quickly these things healed under normal circumstances.

He suppressed a sigh when Pete didn’t react, and covered the bowl again. „Take your time,“ he said and gestured at the tea. „We need to talk anyway.“ He drew the only chair in the room towards the bed and sat down.

Pete frowned at him over the rim of his cup. „Do you expect me to cry in your arms while I tell you exactly how Urko buggered me with a broom?“

Virdon rubbed his chin to cover his unease. Knowing Burke, he had half expected him to be on the defense, but it didn’t make dealing with it any easier. He wasn’t a therapist; this world didn’t even know the concept of psychotherapy, and what service was provided by the priests was meant for, and tailored to apes, not humans. He just had to navigate this minefield as best as he could.

„This is not about your suffering, Pete,“ he said finally, „although whenever you need to talk about what happened to you, I’m here to listen... as your friend. I don’t presume to treat you.“ He glanced at him with a tentative smile, but Burke was staring into his cup. „We need to determine the amount of information Urko managed to obtain from you,“ Virdon continued. „I’m aware that whatever you gave away was done under torture, so this isn’t about blame. But we need to know if we have to warn anyone who is in danger now due to it.“

Burke emptied his cup in one draw and put it back on the tray. His face betrayed no emotion. „Let’s get this over with, then.“

Virdon leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. „Right. You were captured about a month ago-“

„That long?“ For the first time, Burke seemed disturbed. „Felt longer,“ he mumbled, and Virdon fought the urge to apologize. Hell, he _was_ sorry they hadn’t found him sooner, but they had done their best and now was not the time-

He decided to cut to the chase. „Did you give Urko any names?“

Burke nodded without looking up. „Yeah, but- that was all made-up names, y’know? Like, like, Lincoln, and Jesse James... I mean, they aren’t really _made up,_ but I’m pretty sure there’s no ape with the name of Elmer Fudd running around.“

Virdon found this was a golden opportunity to lighten things up a bit. „Elmer Fudd? What else did you give them, Bugs Bunny?“

A tiny smile tugged at Burke’s lips. „King Kong.“

Virdon stared at him, stunned. Then he broke into laughter. _„King Kong?“_

Burke began to chuckle. „Urko didn’t bat an eye...“ The chuckle broadened into laughter. „Just... just told his goon to... to write it down... with the others...“ They were both bellowing with laughter now, and Burke winced, and held his ribs, and they still couldn’t stop laughing; whenever their hilarity began to ebb off, one of them would snort, or say „King Kong,“ and prompt another round of giggles.

It felt good to laugh; Virdon wiped his eyes and sighed. Burke had laid his head back against the wall, looking exhausted, but not as tense as before anymore. Virdon regretted having to sour his mood again.

„Was that the only occasion where they asked you to give them a list of contacts?“

Burke closed his eyes. „No. ‘course not. They were asking me the same damn questions all the fucking time. Who hid us from the patrols? Who gave us food? Which humans helped us, which apes? What were their names, what route did we travel, the names of the villages we came through...“ His hand made circles in the air. „Round an’ round an’ round we went. It’s all... blurred. I can’t... I can’t really remember much, which is strange, I mean you said I was there for a _month...“_

He hesitated. Virdon waited.

„There was another... another interrogator. Vanda. She was... she was okay.“

Virdon wisely said nothing.

„I mean, she wasn’t _okay_ okay, she was still the enemy, but compared to Urko...“ Burke snorted, still not opening his eyes. „Hell, compared to Urko, everyone would seem okay. But she never, uhm, beat me, or, or...“ He trailed off again. After a while, he continued.

„She gave me water. And something to eat. One day, she gave me dates. That was... that was like heaven. Never liked them before, but at that point, I would’ve eaten anything. Even rats. But dates were definitely better.“

Virdon listened.

„An’ yeah, she asked me questions, too,“ Burke said defensively and opened his eyes, „and we talked about all kinds of things-“

„Like what, for example?“

Burke shrugged. „All kinds of... hypothetical scenarios. A lot of ‘what ifs’ and ‘suppose this or that had happened’... no idea what she got out of it. We talked about Cross River...“

Virdon raised his brows. „Cross River as in Nigeria?“

Burke frowned. „No, wait... that wasn’t with her... that was with my old man... got a visit from him down there...“ He slapped his hand on the cover with a frustrated sigh. „It gets all mixed up in my head! All mixed up... I think I dreamed that with my father,“ he added sheepishly, „not that I got much sleep...“

„It would explain why you’re having problems remembering what happened,“ Virdon said cautiously. „Sleep deprivation messes with your brain. It’s called ‘white torture’, just like withholding food and water-“

„Yeah, I sat through SERE, too!“ Burke snapped.

„Try to go backwards, then,“ Virdon suggested, keeping his tone neutral. „Start with what you can remember most clearly...“ He broke off when he saw Burke blanch; a fine sheen of sweat appeared on his upper lip.

Virdon rubbed his brow. „Alright,“ he said. „That was a stupid suggestion.“

„I can’t remember _every_ thing that happened,“ Burke said miserably. „I’m sorry, sir... I just can’t. It’s gone, and the rest is just a jumble, with no head nor tails.“ He swallowed heavily. „I blew it, right. Innocent people are gonna die because of me.“

Virdon drew his upper lip through his teeth, wondering what words could possibly deliver his friend from his agony. „White torture is the most insidious thing people have ever thought up - it messes with your brain chemistry, with your neural pathways, with your whole body... and your brain is an inextricable part of your body. They used your body’s chemistry against you, and there is nothing you can do against that, it’s just laws of biology that were working against you.“

He leaned forward in his chair. „Now _listen_ to me, Major! Giving in under torture, especially this... this _progressive_ kind, isn’t a question of will, or of virtue. It’s a question of basic physiology, and that means that in the end, everyone breaks. Everyone. Neither your character nor your honor are called into question, do you understand me?“

Burke didn’t answer, staring at his bandaged fists.

„Pete.“

Only when Burke finally met his gaze, did he continue. „You fought them with everything you had. You resisted.“ He smiled wryly. „You gave them _King Kong.“_

It took a while, but finally, Burke returned his grin, equally lopsided.

„Don’t worry about the people who helped us,“ Virdon took the bowl from the tray. „Zana is still in contact with Lora, I’ll see to it that word gets out to her, and she’ll do the rest.“ He looked up. „You did well, Pete,“ he said softly. „Don’t beat yourself up over names you probably never gave them.“

„I jus’ can’t stop wondering,“ Burke murmured.

„As I said, leave that to me and Zana... and Lora.“ He took the lid off the bowl. „Now take off your shirt and lay on your back. I need to change your-“

„That sounded way more suggestive than you probably intended,“ Burke muttered and reached behind himself for the hem of his collar to pull the shirt over his head.

„Probably,“ Virdon deadpanned. „You’ll never know for sure.“ He cooped up some of the goo. „It’s not 9 1/2 Weeks, but it’ll have to do...“


	7. Chapter 7

** 2080 **

The air inside the bus was warm and stuffy, with a slight undertone of chemical cleaner and vomit. Gina wished they hadn’t banned cars in the city, not that she would’ve been old enough to drive one anyway. But it was nice to fantasize about not being forced to ride the bus anymore.  


„Do you know what you’re gonna be on Halloween?“ she asked Helen, to distract herself from her nausea. 

They were slowly rolling towards the outskirts of town, where Sally Virdon had bought a small house - or rented it, Gina wasn’t quite sure. She once had heard Mrs. Virdon mutter about ANSA denying her Mr. Virdon’s pension as long as the  _ Daedalus _ mission was still underway, because as long as they were searching for him, he wasn’t presumed dead. So maybe she didn’t have enough money to buy a house. 

On the other hand, Mrs. Virdon was a scientist. They did have a good income, didn’t they?

„An astronaut!“ Helen declared, jolting Gina out of her ruminations.

She sighed. That answer had been so predictable. Ever since Helen had been old enough to reject the cute dragon costume, she had insisted on going trick-or-treating as an astronaut, which upset both her brother and her mother, though probably for different reasons. It was unlikely that Gina would be able to convince Helen to try a different costume for a change, but they still had two weeks to work on that problem.

„Why not go as a scientist?“ Gina asked as they climbed out of the bus. „Scientists are totally part of a spaceship crew.“

Helen thought about that for a moment. „But I wanna be an astronaut,“ she said finally. „I want to go find daddy! With Chris!“

Gina had never known Mr. Virdon in real life, but from the pictures and videos that Chris had shown her, he seemed to have been a very nice man. Still, some days she wanted to scream if she heard his name, or „daddy,“ one more time. 

„Okay, we need to see if your costume still fits, then,“ she said, resigned. It was no use trying to talk Helen out of it - if the Virdon siblings shared one trait, it was their stubbornness. 

She pushed open the front door, her thoughts already on the homework she still had to do - she could as well get a good part of it done here, until Chris came home from his private lesson with Hasslein, and took over - and on what she’d make Helen for dinner. Mrs. Virdon only came home after Gina had left, and Gina never knew if Chris thought of making Helen more than one of his disgusting peanutbutter-and-cheese sandwiches. 

„Mommy!“ Helen let out a delighted squeal and raced into the kitchen.

Mrs. Virdon bent down to pick her up. „Hello, doodles!“

There was a lot of hugging and kissing, and „Mommy I’m gonna be an astronaut on Halloween!“, and Gina was already halfway out of the door, when Mrs. Virdon called after her. „Gina, wait! Just a second, please!“

Gina froze, her hand already on the doorknob. After her first moment of shock, she had decided that meeting Chris’ mom at such an unusual time was ominous enough to justify a hasty retreat, but apparently, she hadn’t retreated hastily enough. 

She turned around to Mrs. Virdon, who had put Helen on the ground again, and tried to smile. „Actually, I have test tomorrow, and I haven’t really prepared for it yet...“

„I won’t keep you for long, promise.“ Mrs. Virdon smiled at her, completely nice and harmless, and Gina gulped and closed the door, and reluctantly returned to the kitchen.

„Let me just make a sandwich for Lennie, and switch on her favorite show,“ Mrs. Virdon said, and began to putter around the kitchen, „it’ll only take a minute.“

Gina slowly sat down at the kitchen table and watched her make a sandwich with quick, efficient movements. It really didn’t take longer than a minute before the score of  _ Bridge of Stars  _ blared from the living room, but the minute was long enough to make Gina break out into a cold sweat all over as she contemplated what could’ve prompted Mrs. Virdon to go home from work so early that she’d catch her when she brought Helen home.

There was only one explanation: Helen had told her mother the big secret, just as Chris had predicted. Gina wanted to kick herself for taking her to the institute. Chris would kill her, if Mrs. Virdon didn’t kill her first...

„Sorry for letting you wait.“ Mrs. Virdon plopped into the seat across from her, slightly out of breath. „So... I wanted to talk about Helen with you.“

So she had been right. Gina braced herself.

„I just got back her test scores,“ Mrs. Virdon said, „and they’re... very...“ She shook her head and raked her hand through her hair. It was graying at the roots; Gina wondered why she didn’t color it. 

„They’re extremely high,“ Mrs. Virdon said. She didn’t sound excited.

„Uh... but... that’s good, isn’t it?“ Gina said after a pause. Her heart was still pounding against her breastbone, and there was a high note ringing in her ears. But this wasn’t about Hasslein and Chris’ secret. She was safe, only her body hadn’t gotten the memo yet. 

Gina forced her mind back to the subject. „Helen is super smart,“ she said. „She can already read and write, and she can add and subtract, and I think she’s figured out how to multiply all on her own...“

„Well, I’m happy that she’s intelligent, of course,“ Mrs. Virdon said, „but if you’re too far outside the norm, you’re... you can easily become an outcast. I wanted her to have a normal life, a happy life...“ She trailed off, staring into space for a moment, and Gina wondered how happy the Virdons’ lives really were. At least with Chris, it was as if he was bleeding out from an invisible wound.

„I had hoped she’d be free to choose her area of interest,“ Mrs. Virdon finally said with a sad smile, „but from what you tell me, Chris has already set her on a course to the stars.“ She gestured at the pictures of space ships that were plastered all over the kitchen walls - starships, ringed planets, and a man with huge wings, wearing an ANSA suit.

„I want to study biology,“ Gina said, and for a few precious minutes, they discussed the different fields, and universities. Mrs. Virdon had studied at Berkeley, but encouraged her to apply to the other colleges, too. 

„You shouldn’t limit your options from the outset,“ she said, then sighed. „Listen to me doling out good advice, while my own children are confining themselves with their tunnel vision. Or rather, Chris’ tunnel vision.“

„Helen worships Chris,“ Gina murmured. 

„Helen wants nothing more than to win her brother’s love,“ Mrs. Virdon said, and Gina’s heart ached at the pain in her voice. „But Chris is too hurt to have any love to give, except to his father.“

Gina swallowed. It was worse to hear it than to think it. When she just thought about it, she could quickly think of something else, before she came to the inevitable conclusion that Chris also didn’t have any love left to give to her.

„I had hoped his obsession would’ve cooled off a bit by now,“ Mrs. Virdon murmured. „It’s been five years now... more than five years. God! Time flies... but not in here, it seems. In here, we all revolve around Alan like planets around a sun. Or a big, black hole. It’s as if Chris can’t let go - as if something was still feeding this obsession.“

She rose to make coffee, and Gina sat very still, like a rabbit in a furrow, trying to be inconspicuous while the buzzard circled in the sky.

„We need to move on,“ Mrs. Virdon said, when she came back to the table. „We can’t go on living in this limbo, waiting for my husband’s return.“

Gina silently agreed with her, but didn’t know what to say. This conversation was strange - why did Mrs. Virdon want to talk with her about Mr. Virdon?

„Alan may never come back,“ Mrs. Virdon was saying, and Gina felt increasingly nervous at the meaningful tone in her voice. „He might be dead since the day his ship was lost. I didn’t want to believe it for a long time, either, so I don’t blame Chris. I let myself get snared by that scientist’s promise that he could bring them back, too, and it held me in its grip for over two years.“

‘That scientist’ was Professor Hasslein. Gina’s heart picked up its frantic pace again, sensing danger.

Mrs. Virdon folded her hands on the tabletop and leaned towards her, her voice taking on an urgent tone. „But this is no way to live, and I’m sure Alan wouldn’t want us to live like that, either. He’d want us to enjoy our lives, to grow up, and learn new things, and have friends... and girlfriends“ - she smiled, and reached across the table to take Gina’s hand before she could react - „and go out into the world to grace it with our own gifts. He’d want us to honor our own purpose in life, not put it on hold for his sake... or to make his life our purpose.“ 

Her grip tightened around Gina’s hand a bit. „Something is keeping Chris a captive of that scientist’s vision. That... fantasy. Do you know what that could be?“

_ She knows it. She knows the secret.  _ Gina stared at her, unable to make a sound. She mutely shook her head.

„Are you sure you don’t know?“ Suddenly, Mrs. Virdon’s eyes were piercing; Gina was pinned under her gaze more securely than if she had grabbed both her hands. 

„Helen told me a story about a wizard who can find her daddy, and her description matched that of the scientist behind the  _ Daedalus  _ project - Hasslein.“

Gina’s blood was thrumming in her ears.  _ She knows it. She knows it. She knows it. _

„How does Lennie know Hasslein?“ And now the steel was in Mrs. Virdon’s voice, too.  _ „Don’t you dare lying to me, Regina Lombardi!“ _

And the heat was back, rushing all over Gina’s body, breaking the sweat from her pores, and tears from her eyes. She shook her head, wildly, desperately. „I can’t! I can’t! I made an oath! I can’t...“

Mrs. Virdon eyes were still boring into her, but her look was maybe a bit more thoughtful than before. „Chris made you swear an oath not to tell me about Hasslein?“

Gina didn’t dare to nod; that would’ve broken the oath, too. But whatever Mrs. Virdon saw in her face made her sigh and release her hand. „He put you into an impossible situation,“ she said. „He had no right to swear you in on a lie.“

„He’ll never forgive me if I betray him,“ Gina whispered.

„I won’t tell Chris that you told me,“ Mrs. Virdon said, and the steel was back in her voice. „But if you love him, you’ll help me to pry him from Hasslein’s hands. I already lost my husband to the bastard - I’m not going to give him my son, too.“

Gina drew a shaky breath. ‘If she loved Chris’... what a question.

She just wished he’d love her back the same.

„Two years ago, I met him on the way to the bus stop...“


End file.
